Emily is tucked up tight, holding her breath, suspended between life, love, and rebirth.
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"The Glorious Between is a sinuous, luxurious exploration of what makes us who we are. With a fascinating beginning and glorious descriptive detail, it is the kind of novel made to both savor and ponder." - Independent Book Review
"The Glorious Between is a cinematically staged, magical exploration based in reality, while guiding the reader to parallel realms where love conquers and lovers can find unsullied contentment." - Feathered Quill
"I seldom as a reader will reread a book but The Glorious Between is a book that I will read several times because there is just so many life lessons and hope in this wonderful book." - BookBub Reviewer
Beata Beatrix, by Rossetti, 1850
Sad, Joyful, Spiritual, Beautiful.
Sad, Joyful, Spiritual, Beautiful.
Sad because Emily is dying—it is that thing in her head. She cannot remember her past and can retain only fragments of the present. It often feels as if she has never existed.
Joyful because, despite all that, Emily somehow discovers love. Day by day, that is all she knows. She is very lucky and she knows it.
Spiritual because Emily knows deep within herself that we are more than just flesh and bone, and that there is a purpose to life, and that maybe our world is deeper than we can possibly know.
Beautiful because Emily is beautiful, and the world she experiences is beautiful.
and finally,
Mysterious because there is always something to be rediscovered: a new life in a new world, where everything hoped for can become real.
We are born for no reason, we die for no reason, but everything between is glorious.
Alessandra Elizabetta Marsh
Prologue
Prologue
Emily opened her eyes and her world became different. It was that thing in her head that was responsible; it took away her memories, and it was killing her. But Emily had blonde hair held in place with a sparkling barrette, clear green eyes, and a complexion that had not seen the sun for weeks, even months on end. She was fully formed and beautiful. She was dressed in white. Sometimes, many times, Emily felt useless and powerless, ugly and hopeless, despondent and afraid; but at other times, she felt so alive she could almost lift off the ground and walk on air. When Emily felt like that, she felt a deep joy; she felt beautiful. It was preferable to the darkness she often felt.
“Have you ever wondered why God made men and women so beautiful?” Patrick had once asked her.
“I’m not beautiful,” she had responded quietly, believing she was not.
Patrick did not often smile but he did then. “Beauty is a light in the heart,” he said.
She had not known how to respond and had, instead, wept. She had wept because the past is the past, forever irrecoverable.
“Kahlil Gibran,” he explained softly.
“No, no, Alessandra said that!” she had corrected him, remembering Alessandra looking out the window. It had been nearly spring, the garden bordering the sidewalk that led in a sweeping arc to the black paint-flaked spears opening to the greening park.
There are three main authors who have influenced The Glorious Between: Kahlil Gibran, Michael Ondaatje, and (primarily) Oliver Sacks.
Kahlil Gibran
Kahlil Gibran
Michael Ondaatje
Michael Ondaatje
Oliver Sacks
Oliver Sacks
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