A cosmic storm reunites a father with his lost son--but another kind
of disturbance awaits them--in this science fiction novel with "a real
emotional core" (Publishers Weekly).
Thomas Pendleton loves his wife, Ann, and six-year-old son, Seth, more
than anything, but his job often makes him an absent husband and father.
One day, after Thomas leaves on a business trip, his wife and son are
killed in a car accident. Thomas shuts himself off from the world and is
at home grieving when a cosmic storm enters Earth's atmosphere.
Scientists are baffled by its composition and origins, but not nearly as
much as they are by the storm's side effect: Anyone who has died and
chosen not to cross over is suddenly visible and can interact with the
living.
Ann does not return, but Seth does, and Thomas sees it as a miraculous
second chance to spend time with his son and keep the promises he had
previously broken. They set out on a trip to the Air and Space Museum in
Washington, DC, but little do they know that they are traveling headlong
into a social and political maelstrom that will test Thomas in ways he
could never imagine. Along the way, they come face to face with armed
kidnappers who want Seth for his supernatural abilities, meet up with a
medium, the ghost of a slave boy, and encounter none other than Abraham
Lincoln.
Citing an overpopulation problem caused by the "Impalpables," the
government begins to take drastic measures. Military scientists have a
device called the Tesla Gate that is said to return "Impals" to where
they were before the storm. Many have nicknamed the controversial
machine "the shredder" because no one really knows if it will do what it
is reputed to, or if it will instead shred the Impals--effectively
destroying the soul. Thomas is determined to do everything possible to
save Seth, or at the very least, ensure that Seth doesn't have to endure
his sentence alone . . .
