Help! I'm Alive

(Paperback)

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Description

When a teen dies, four people are left spinning, each trying to deal with their grief and face the dissatisfactions of their lives. Fresh, insightful, and propulsive, Help! Im Alive sensitively and authentically explores the challenges of deathand of living on.

A powerfully emotional story of four people touched by a teens death, award-winning author Gurjinder Basrans Help! Im Alive is a clear-eyed exploration of meaningful connection in the modern era After video footage of Jays death is shared on social media, a suburban Vancouver community is left to try to make sense of what happened to Jay and whether his death was an accident or a suicide. Help! Im Alive explores the aftermath through the eyes of four people all suddenly confronted with who they have been and how they should be in the wake of such loss. Jays former best friend, Ash, wonders what happened to their friendship and questions the relationships he has now; Winona, Jays troubled girlfriend struggles with guilt and abandonment; Anik, Ashs older brother, is on a search for the meaning of life but hasnt left his basement apartment in months; and Pavan, Ash and Aniks mother, finds Jays death lays bare all her personal and maternal anxieties. Unflinching but life-affirming, Help! Im Alive is a Gen Z and Gen X coming-to-terms story about loneliness and connection, love and suffering, and the moments that bring us together and drive us apart.

'Help! Im Alive doesnt exploit the despair that can lead to suicide but instead asks its characters and readers to look at the ways they connect or dont in modern society . . . Basrans insight, voice and deep character work make this an affecting read.' Shelf Awareness

Reviews

"Gurjinder Basran brings a laser-focused intensity to the interactions and concerns of alienated teens, the cruelties and generosities of friendship, intimacy and family, the 'small interventions' that make life bearable. 'When we're the luckiest we don't even know it's happening, ' she writes. By the end of Help! I'm Alive, though, that is no longer true; having come through a terrible ordeal, these flawed but compelling characters have found the grace notes to guide them onward in their journey." -- Rachel Rose, author of The Octopus Has Three Hearts
"Rather than exploiting suicide for character development, Basran opts to probe fractures in the oldest, closest relationships and the beautiful fragility of new ones. Each character is distinct, drawn with such detail that readers will find it easy to empathize with them. Help! I'm Alive is a masterful examination of what it means to be human, to hope and to connect." -- Shelf Awareness
"A satisfying drama." -- Publishers Weekly
"Basran sensitively examines four characters with their own sets of psychological struggles, all of whom gradually and to a believable degree begin to move past them and open up, offering a hint of hope to the reader." -- Booklist
"Help! I'm Alive doesn't exploit the despair that can lead to suicide but instead asks its characters and readers to look at the ways they connect -- or don't -- in modern society ... Basran's insight, voice and deep character work make this an affecting read." -- Shelf Awareness

Author Bio

Gurjinder Basran is the award-winning author of two previous works of fiction. Her debut novel, Everything Was Goodbye, won the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and her work regularly appears on must-read lists. Basran studied at Simon Fraser Universities Writer's Studio and lives with her family just outside of Vancouver, British Columbia.