Two men are involved in a car crash: Brad dies, and Danny—who can’t stand the thought of living without him—kills himself, convinced that with so little time having elapsed between their deaths, he’ll be able to catch up to Brad on his way to Judgment. The novel becomes a modern Pilgrim’s Progress, detailing the tests inseparable from a journey through purgatory.

Stephen Benatar was born in 1937 in Baker Street, London—and in the block of flats where H. G. Wells and Arnold Bennett once lived; one of these days there’ll have to be a third important plaque beside the other two! Benatar is married, with four children, but now openly gay and living with a male partner.