49 Days

Gr 8 Up–The story of a lost soul on a journey through the afterlife. Startled awake on a wide stretch of beach, a young woman treks across sand and rocks, trying to get her bearings and find a way across the incoming tide, but she gets swallowed by the sea. Waking to the same predicament repeatedly in an endless purgatory, she always loses herself to the sea and regains consciousness again as the sole inhabitant of the beach. By day 20, she hits her breaking point after attempts to end this unreal existence prove useless. Utterly alone and helpless, she sits with memory and lets it overtake her, reliving the events that brought her here. Kit misses her family; her mother, siblings, and friends mourn in their own ways, reaching towards Korean tradition and the healing power of shared food and Buddhist prayer. Settling into acceptance, Kit discovers a boat to traverse the final stretch of her journey that culminates on the 49th day. This debut by The New York Times “Metropolitan Diary” illustrator is told in simple, bold lines and sparse words, reflecting pensive solitude and the isolation of grief. The story is meditative and cathartic but not ponderous or overwrought. Lee’s deliberately enigmatic style means there is not a great deal of differentiation between the siblings, which makes distinguishing individual characters challenging at times.