Well … who would have thought death and dying could be such fun? Or the afterlife so mundane? Or that haunting as a ghost is so reliant on technology?

Angus Mooney has had a tough start to life, until he meets Gracie. She’s a marriage celebrant, but her speeches at those ceremonies are caustic and uncomfortable.

Angus moves in to Gracie’s house, working as her wedding videographer. Life is complete … except for a baby.

Into this almost-bliss comes Owen. He says that he grew up in their house and his dying wish is to see it again. Gracie (pregnant at last!) invites him in and soon he refuses to leave. He has a brain disease and pity allows him to stay, but Angus feels something is amiss. He’s murdered by Owen before he can alert Gracie.

Death, though, is not what Angus expected. He arrives at Lagaria, a town in an undisclosed location, slowly adapting to his ‘afterlife’. He has to register for work and still has the same inertia that marked his ‘life’.

Not all the dead are brought here, though. (‘Why?’ is the question never answered, but crucial to the denouement.)

Back on Earth, with Owen now worming his way into Gracie’s bed, a pandemic has closed hospitals. Gracie must operate on herself to deliver her daughter, Inez. Soon after, in Lagaria, Owen is dead and meets Angus. It’s very awkward, especially as they compete as ghosts checking on Gracie and Inez. The pandemic is closing in. All three adults fear for Inez.

Here Goes Nothing is an extraordinary book that wraps the deepest philosophical questions in humour. What happens to us when we die and will we meet our loved ones again?

Reviewed by Bob Moore

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve Toltz was born in Sydney, Australia in 1972. His first novel, A Fraction of the Whole, was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize and the Guardian First Book Award. His second novel, Quicksand, won the 2017 Russell Prize for Humour.