David Eagleman seems to have thought about it a lot! Sum, which is subtitled 'Forty tales from the afterlives', is a collection of short essays telling about different afterlives that could possibly be.
Maybe you become part of the background cast in someone else's dream? The characters who populate dreams, but who we never meet or see clearly. Sometimes you take centre stage, but most of the time you'll be waiting in the wings.
Or perhaps death is a three part process; firstly the body ceases to function, then the body is consigned to the grave, and then the final death is when you are forgotten by those who remember you. So, until that happens you wait in a sort of 'lobby area'. For those who have no family or friends the wait might be short, but for those who have achieved much, done great deeds, or have large families, the wait can be long and extremely boring!
How about getting the chance to live your life again - but you can change one single thing? What would you choose?
Or maybe you get the chance to met God - but what or who is he or she - there are so many different possibilities.
This little book is so thought provoking - each story sets you off thinking in a different direction. Don't try to read it in one sitting, each essay is worth taking the time to think over afterwards. It's got to be one of the most original books I've read - and I have a feeling I'll be going back to it again and again.
Bought on Green Metropolis (although John was going to buy it for me for Christmas!)
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