Some time ago a friend of Booktopia threw a book on my desk, a post it note attached with just two words on it.

The book was a supernatural tale from a debut US author. That sentence is probably the most common used by booksellers over the past decade, and not really my cup of tea, but I took it home and flicked through it that night.

And I then I flicked through it a little more. And a little more after that.

And then I stopped flicking through it and looked at the clock.

It said 4:30am.

That’s when you know it’s a pretty good one.

And now that book is one of the biggest TV shows in Australia.

The book is The Returned, by Jason Mott.

The TV Show is Resurrection, which on Tuesday become the highest rating TV drama launch in two years, with 1.911 million viewers for the opening episode. Crazy numbers.

Sure, the TV series is good. But the book, let’s face it, is always better, and adds layers you never know existed.

The Returned. Grab a copy today. It’s big, and is going to get even bigger.

Grab a copy of Jason Mott’s The Returned today

The Returned

by Jason Mott

Jacob was time out of sync, time more perfect than it had been. He was life the way it was supposed to be all those years ago. That’s what all the Returned were.

Harold and Lucille Hargrave’s lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. In their old age they’ve settled comfortably into life without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of time … Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old.

All over the world people’s loved ones are returning from beyond. No one knows how or why this is happening, whether it’s a miracle or a sign of the end. Not even Harold and Lucille can agree on whether the boy is real or a wondrous imitation, but one thing they know for sure: he’s their son. As chaos erupts around the globe, the newly reunited Hargrave family finds itself at the center of a community on the brink of collapse, forced to navigate a mysterious new reality and a conflict that threatens to unravel the very meaning of what it is to be human.

With spare, elegant prose and searing emotional depth, award-winning poet Jason Mott explores timeless questions of faith and morality, love and responsibility. A spellbinding and stunning debut, The Returned is an unforgettable story that marks the arrival of an important new voice in contemporary fiction.

Grab a copy of Jason Mott’s The Returned today

2 Comments Share:

About the Contributor

Andrew Cattanach

Andrew Cattanach is a regular contributor to The Booktopia Blog. He has been shortlisted for The Age Short Story Prize and was named a finalist for the 2015 Young Bookseller of the Year Award. He enjoys reading, writing and sleeping, though finds it difficult to do them all at once.

Follow Andrew: Twitter