Kindle
$11.99
Available instantly
Audible Logo Audiobook
$0.00
with membership trial
Hardcover
$29.99
Paperback
$6.86
Kindle Price: $11.99

Save $6.00 (33%)

Promotions apply when you purchase

These promotions will be applied to this item:

Some promotions may be combined; others are not eligible to be combined with other offers. For details, please see the Terms & Conditions associated with these promotions.

Audiobook Price: $21.83

Save: $14.34 (66%)

Read with our free app
You've subscribed to ! We will preorder your items within 24 hours of when they become available. When new books are released, we'll charge your default payment method for the lowest price available during the pre-order period.
Update your device or payment method, cancel individual pre-orders or your subscription at
Your Memberships & Subscriptions

Buy for others

Give as a gift or purchase for a team or group.
Learn more

Buying and sending eBooks to others

  1. Select quantity
  2. Buy and send eBooks
  3. Recipients can read on any device

These ebooks can only be redeemed by recipients in the US. Redemption links and eBooks cannot be resold.
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Paul Monette
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Afterlife: A Novel Kindle Edition

by Paul Monette (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 27 ratings
See all formats and editions
A powerful exploration of the way AIDS reshapes relationships and lives

Afterlife is a haunting and unforgettable story of men facing loss and seeking love, movingly capturing the moment in the 1980s when the AIDS epidemic was completely devastating the American gay community. Here, National Book Award winner Paul Monette depicts three men of various economic and social backgrounds, all with one thing in common: They are widowers, in a way, and all of their lovers died of AIDS in an LA hospital within a week of one another.

Steven, Sonny, and Dell meet weekly to discuss how to go on with their lives despite the hanging sword of being HIV positive. One tries to find a semblance of normalcy; one rebels openly against the disease, choosing to treat his body as a temple that he can consecrate and desecrate at will; and one throws himself into fierce political activism. No matter what path each one takes, they are all searching for one thing: a way to live and love again.

Afterlife finds Paul Monette at his most autobiographical, portraying men in a situation that he himself experienced, and one that he described to critical acclaim in the award-winning Borrowed Time: An AIDS Memoir.

This ebook features an illustrated biography of Paul Monette including rare images and never-before-seen documents from the Paul Monette papers of the UCLA Library Special Collections.
Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    358 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Sticky notes
    On Kindle Scribe
  4. Publisher
    Open Road Media
  5. Publication date
    April 22, 2014
  6. File size
    4946 KB
  7. Page Flip
    Enabled
  8. Word Wise
    Enabled
  9. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
  10. See all details
Next page
Add a debit or credit card to save time when you check out
Convenient and secure with 2 clicks. Add your card

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Steven Shaw, an AIDS widower, holds weekly gatherings for two others who also have lost their lovers: Dell Espinoza, who expresses his grief through anger, threats and vandalism, and Sonny, who uses sexuality as an escape. According to PW , "The story rings poignantly true."
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

After dealing with the subject of AIDS autobiographically in Borrowed Time (LJ 8/88, and an LJ "Best Book of 1988") and through poetry in Love Alone ( LJ 4/1/88), Monette turns to fiction. Three men lose lovers to AIDS in the same week and hospital, creating a bond via their common grief and their own AIDS-positive status. Steven withdraws from life, making it difficult to connect with the new love being offered in the person of Mark. Dell is full of rage and plots against a homophobic evangelist. Sonny, the golden boy, simply denies both his grief and his illness, trusting in New Age mysticism to save him. The portrayals of Dell and Sonny border on caricature, but Steven's slow journey to wholeness is as satisfying and real as fiction can get. Highly recommended.
-James E. Cook, Dayton & Montgomery Cty. P.L., Ohio
Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00JDY7RJG
  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Open Road Media (April 22, 2014)
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 22, 2014
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 4946 KB
  • Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 358 pages
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 27 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Paul Monette

Paul Monette

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
27 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Stephanie N. Gomez
5.0 out of 5 stars A stunner!
Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2014
Verified Purchase
This is the story of three men who meet in the waiting room of a hospital where all have lovers dying of AIDS. Once widowed, their lives are followed, intertwining throughout the book. No happy endings but it's ultimately a positive book. There's a few twists and turns that were completely unexpected. This book was set in the 80's, as many of Paul Monette's books are, when AIDS was pretty much a death sentence. This is quite a book, one that I highly recommend. Gay or straight, it won't disappoint.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
D. Cloyce Smith
4.0 out of 5 stars Life after death
Reviewed in the United States on September 4, 2004
With an eloquence enhanced by experience, Paul Monette (1945-1995) presents the story of three "widowers," gay men whose lovers died of AIDS in a hospital within days of each other. The survivors have little in common, yet their shared tragedy, subsequent get-togethers, and a series of events throw them all under the same roof.

In the center of this trio is Steven Shaw, whose home provides the oasis of last resort for the men and their friends. Grieving and calloused, depressed and moody, Steven attempts to combat his indifference towards the travel agency he owns, remoteness from an employee who is close to death, and disinterest in the possibility of a new relationship. His journey is aided by Margaret, who runs his business in his absence and cares for the dying Ray, and by Mark, a Hollywood executive with whom he unexpectedly falls in love.

Steven's fellow survivors are less centered and more erratic, however. Dell Espinoza allows his anger and grief to degenerate into an obsessive aggression towards an uncaring society and he funnels his hostility towards acts of vandalism, reserving his most vicious attacks for a loathsome, gay-hating evangelist. Not even a loving, empathetic sister Linda can save Dell from his own fury. Stunningly attractive and intellectually shallow, Sonny Cevathas (the third widower) deals with his grief by ignoring it altogether. Discounting his own health problems as minor inconveniences, believing that New Age trickery and "positive thinking" can halt his own demise, and searching for a rich man to immerse him in undeserved luxury, Sonny is the book's most wicked (although, I'm afraid, scarily accurate) portrayal of one of many men who fooled themselves into initially believing that AIDS could be simply wished away.

Depression, anger, and denial--the paths taken by these three incompatible friends--are rarely so clearly demarcated as they are in Monette's characters. (Dell especially represents an extreme that is, thankfully, scarce.) But the author injects his tale of loss and sorrow with enough humor and affection to keep it from the edge of hopelessness. Not just a book about death and dying, "Afterlife" is, more than anything, a book about learning to live again.
5 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Polar Bear
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent coverage of a difficult topic.
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2015
Verified Purchase
An excellent review of the history of AIDS in America and the impact on the gay community.
Helpful
 Report
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful look at what happens to those left behind
Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 1997
"Afterlife" by Paul Monette struck me in many ways. It made me realize what happens to the living after those we love so much are gone. It is disturbing in an eye-opening way, and as one reviewer stated, revolutionary in its own right.
The characters are well formed, not sterotypical, and show how any human can react to a loss of a loved one to something so meaningless.... Gay or straight in so much of it is not relevant. It more than anything else I have read, shows the devestation and the legacy that AIDS has left behind.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
A. D. Dunn
3.0 out of 5 stars Monette's writing got better with AIDS
Reviewed in the United States on September 16, 2014
I was so enraptured by Becoming a Man and Borrowed Time, that I moved right into Monette's fiction, starting with his first book, and then ground to a halt. This is his first fiction work I've picked up since then, I'm saving Last Watch of the Night for some unknown time in the future where I can savour it.
Monette's writing got better with AIDS, the books had a focus and that trend continues here, though for much of the first half of the book he struggles to overcome his old writing style, that of a privileged man writing from a pedestal and casting only half an eye at his subjects. Its especially difficult to write a book with all men, all white gay men, and be able to keep the characters separate. One supposes they're all friends due to their similarities but for the first half of the book I had no idea who was who, and I suppose I didn't really care. The second half of the book the action picks up and at the same time the story becomes more focused on just two people, rather than the confusing eight at the beginning, and the book became good. I was surpassed, I was all set to give it a negative review but I'm glad I stuck with it.
The book details a life lived in between the falling bombs of the AIDS epidemic. There is desperation, such as when a character "called the Federal Building, demanding release of a drug that people were smuggling in from China." I understand the frustration, but actions like this led to the over-prescribing of AZT and the death of early patients.
As the novel continues Monette loses most of his detachment from the characters and once they become real this novel becomes the heart-felt AIDS crisis snap-shot it should be. It just takes a little too long to get there.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Report an issue

Does this item contain inappropriate content?
Report
Do you believe that this item violates a copyright?
Report
Does this item contain quality or formatting issues?
Report