Peter Kujawinski, "Edgeland"

Join us at The Book Cellar with author, Peter Kujawinski, as we celebrate the launch of his latest book co-authored with Jake Halpern, Edgeland.

About Peter Kujawinski:

For eighteen years, Peter Kujawinski was an American diplomat, on assignment in places like Israel, Haiti, France, and at the UN in New York. Most recently, he was the US Consul General in western Canada, which included Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Northwest Territories. While working as a diplomat, he started to write for adults and children. He is a contributor to the New York Times, and with coauthor Jake Halpern, Peter wrote Nightfall and the Dormia trilogy (Dormia, World’s End, and Shadow Tree). He lives in Chicago with his family.

About Edgeland:

*BOOKLIST STARRED REVIEW*

Life on Edgeland is devoted to funerary arts, due to its nearness to the Drain—the waterfall-like ocean drop-off believed to lead to purgatory. Dodging through the somber island’s streets, 12-year-old Wren snatches what valuables she can in order to buy passage off Edgeland and find her missing father. It’s a cut-throat existence that ultimately lands her at the scene of a murder, rendering Wren its prime suspect. Before making her escape, she agrees to help her friend Alec retrieve a considerable payment to his bone house (a cross between a funeral parlor and church) that was accidentally loaded onto a funeral raft. Their daring plan goes spectacularly wrong, sending Wren and Alec over the Drain’s edge along with the dead, who are reviving for their journey to the afterlife. Purgatory is a dangerous place for the living, and as Wren and Alec endeavor to escape, their core beliefs are challenged in unexpected ways. Halpern and Kujawinski have constructed a refreshing, original fantasy that thoughtfully probes the subjects of class, religion, and morality. Wren’s and Alec’s responses to the astonishing sights in the Drain are believable and reflective of their individual personalities, maintaining the importance of their inner lives. Compellingly written, this otherworldly adventure is a unique offering that deserves attention. Happily, an open ending suggests Wren and Alec’s adventures have only begun.

— Julia Smith

Life on Edgeland is devoted to funerary arts, due to its nearness to the Drain—the waterfall-like ocean

drop-off believed to lead to purgatory. Dodging through the somber island’s streets, 12-year-old Wren

snatches what valuables she can in order to buy passage off Edgeland and find her missing father. It’s a

cut-throat existence that ultimately lands her at the scene of a murder, rendering Wren its prime suspect.

Before making her escape, she agrees to help her friend Alec retrieve a considerable payment to his bone

house (a cross between a funeral parlor and church) that was accidentally loaded onto a funeral raft. Their

daring plan goes spectacularly wrong, sending Wren and Alec over the Drain’s edge along with the dead,

who are reviving for their journey to the afterlife. Purgatory is a dangerous place for the living, and as

Wren and Alec endeavor to escape, their core beliefs are challenged in unexpected ways. Halpern and

Kujawinski have constructed a refreshing, original fantasy that thoughtfully probes the subjects of class,

religion, and morality. Wren’s and Alec’s responses to the astonishing sights in the Drain are believable

and reflective of their individual personalities, maintaining the importance of their inner lives.

Compellingly written, this otherworldly adventure is a unique offering that deserves attention. Happily, an

open ending suggests Wren and Alec’s adventures have only begun.

— Julia Smith

Life on Edgeland is devoted to funerary arts, due to its nearness to the Drain—the waterfall-like ocean

drop-off believed to lead to purgatory. Dodging through the somber island’s streets, 12-year-old Wren

snatches what valuables she can in order to buy passage off Edgeland and find her missing father. It’s a

cut-throat existence that ultimately lands her at the scene of a murder, rendering Wren its prime suspect.

Before making her escape, she agrees to help her friend Alec retrieve a considerable payment to his bone

house (a cross between a funeral parlor and church) that was accidentally loaded onto a funeral raft. Their

daring plan goes spectacularly wrong, sending Wren and Alec over the Drain’s edge along with the dead,

who are reviving for their journey to the afterlife. Purgatory is a dangerous place for the living, and as

Wren and Alec endeavor to escape, their core beliefs are challenged in unexpected ways. Halpern and

Kujawinski have constructed a refreshing, original fantasy that thoughtfully probes the subjects of class,

religion, and morality. Wren’s and Alec’s responses to the astonishing sights in the Drain are believable

and reflective of their individual personalities, maintaining the importance of their inner lives.

Compellingly written, this otherworldly adventure is a unique offering that deserves attention. Happily, an

open ending suggests Wren and Alec’s adventures have only begun.

— Julia Smith

In this intriguing fantasy, two friends discover the secret of life after death as they travel to the realm where people go to await their final fate. Wren is an orphan and thief living on Edgeland, an island that services the Drain, a hole in the ocean into which the deceased are sent. When Wren is framed for murder, she attempts to flee, and she and her best friend Alec are swept through the Drain, ending up in Purgatory. They discover a bizarre community made up of the living and the dead, led by religious leaders who exercise tyrannical control over their subjects. In order to return to the world in which they belong, Alec and Wren must unravel long-hidden secrets and free the trapped spirits. Halpern and Kujawinski provide a fascinating world, and their story is fueled by a strong premise and compelling protagonists, but it doesnat reach its full potential. As in Nightfall too many aspects of the setting are left unexplained while the plot rushes ahead at full speed. (Publishers Weekly)