The Inhabited World

The Inhabited World by Long, David. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780618543359.

Evan Molloy - son, husband, and stepfather - fatally shot himself but doesnt know why. He is now stuck in a state of purgatory in the house in Washington State where he lived and died. The woman who now lives there, Maureen Keniston, is in her late thirties and is trying to restart her life after breaking off a long affair with a married man. The novel moves back and forth between the story of Evans troubled life and Maureens efforts to emerge from her own purgatory. In watching Maureens struggles and ultimate triumph, Evan comes to see his own life and death in a completely new way. Part psychological drama, part mystery, The Inhabited World paints a portrait of a man caught between this world and the next and a woman who unwittingly offers him a sort of redemption he never could have predicted.