Description Hide Description- Show Description+
When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own sparsely-attended funeral, Wallace is outraged. But he begins to suspect she's right, and he is in fact dead. Then when Hugo, owner of a most peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace reluctantly accepts the truth.
Yet even in death, he refuses to abandon his life - even though Wallace spent all of it working, correcting colleagues and hectoring employees. He'd had no time for frivolities like fun and friends.
But as Wallace drinks tea with Hugo and talks to his customers, he wonders if he was missing something. The feeling grows as he shares jokes with the resident ghost, manifests embarrassing footwear and notices the stars. So when he's given one week to pass through the door to the other side, Wallace sets about living a lifetime in just seven days.\
Author: TJ Klune
Paperback Published 31 January 2023 384 pages
Originally published in trade paperback 28 September 2021
"There is so much to enjoy in Under the Whispering Door, but what I cherish the most is its compassion for the little things--a touch, a glance, a precious piece of dialogue--healing me, telling me that for all the strangenesses I hold, I am valued, valid--and maybe even worthy of love." --Ryka Aoki, Light from Uncommon Stars
"A warm hug of a book about a Grinch of a man who dies and a ferryman, who helps the dead in their journey onwards. Under the Whispering Door is a kind book, full of faith in the goodness of people, full of kind people showing how compassion is a strength. It broke my heart with its unflinching understanding that grief never goes away, never empties, only settles into the room of your soul like a strange souvenir. And then it healed me in the next breath." --Cassandra Khaw, author of Nothing But Blackened Teeth
"Tenderness, wit, and skillful worldbuilding elevate this delightful tale. Fans of queer fantasy won't want to miss this." --Publishers Weekly