Short Synopsis
One of those rare, unforgettable novels that are as chilling as they are insightful, as thought-provoking as they are terrifying, award-winning author Connie Willis's Passage is an astonishing blend of relentless suspense and cutting-edge science unlike anything you've ever heard before.

Full Synopsis
A psychologist specializing in near-death experiences, Dr. Joanna Lander has spent two years recording the experiences of those who have been declared clinically dead and lived to tell about it.

A new doctor has arrived at Mercy General, one with the power to give Joanna the chance to get as close to death as anyone can.

A brilliant young neurologist, Dr. Richard Wright has come up with a way to manufacture the near-death experience using a psychoactive drug. Dr. Wright is convinced that the NDE is a survival mechanism and that if only doctors understood how it worked, they could someday delay the dying process, or maybe even reverse it.

When his key volunteer suddenly drops out of the study, Joanna finds herself offering to become Richard's next subject. After all, who better than she, a trained psychologist, to document the experience?

Her first NDE is as fascinating as she imagined it would be—so astounding that she knows she must go back, if only to find out why this place is so hauntingly familiar. But each time Joanna goes under, her sense of dread begins to grow, because part of her already knows why the experience is so familiar, and why she has every reason to be afraid . . .

"Erin deWard narrates, imbuing a large cast of characters with a hint of the wry humor
typical of Willis' work. While the book's shifts in pacing and tone could be jarring, deWard
masters the transition from the slow, methodical pace of the early chapters to the more
suspense-filled, high-stakes back half." ---Lizzie Matkowski, Booklist

"DeWard's incredible range enlivens a friendly old man's war stories; an ER nurse's detached, deep voice; and a girl's insatiable questions, asked while she's struggling to catch her breath." —AudioFile

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