Book tip

The Life of the World to Come by Dan Cluchey

If the concept of a "first love" actually had an emotional staying power, there'd probably be a few million pop songs, poems and novels written about the subject. Oh, wait. There HAVE been. But I'm betting few are as distinctively memorable or clever as "The Life of the World to Come" by first-time novelist and New Haven resident Dan Cluchey (who, oh, yeah, is a former Obama speechwriter). Leo and Fiona have one of those "no one's ever been in love like this" college and post-college romances — until she suddenly leaves to pursue her acting dreams in LA. Emotionally dead, Leo joins a law firm dedicated to helping "lost cause" death row inmates and takes on the case of a Georgia inmate named Michael, a mystical and enigmatic convicted murderer — whose guilt seems an iffy proposition. Together they ponder the mysteries of an Afterlife — on multiple human and celestial levels. Cluchey has a fluid style that pinballs from punchline hilarity to autumnal melancholy — and whether Leo will save Michael and ultimately navigate his own broken heart is an astonishing literary sojourn.