The Afterlife of Emerson Tang
A vintage 1954 Beacon car is the axis around which four characters revolve, trying to accept and resolve each of their sorrows in Champa’s vividly detailed debut. Dying at 33, Emerson Tang Webster is the wealthy son of an established old-money family. His possession of the prized Beacon is first a point of pride, then consternation as events reveal that its safekeeping in a garage has been breached. His personal assistant and archivist, watchful narrator Beth Corvid, attempts to parse everyone’s lives into manageable pieces as she weaves the tale of mystery and connection. Along the way, Beth makes surprising discoveries while also slowly revealing her own secrets. French painter Hélène Moreau wants the car at any cost. Her near-manic desperation is balanced by a sometimes-unexpected clarity. Then there is Miguel Beacon, grandson of the man who started the now-defunct Beacon car empire. His story may be the most complex of all in this intellectual yet deeply human examination of what it means to live as well as to die. --Julie Trevelyan