The Frequency of Souls - by Mary Kay Zuravleff (Paperback)

About the Book

The passive, mundane life of George Mahoney changes radically with the arrival of a new office mate, the youthful Niagara Spense, a six-foot-tall, near-sighted scientist whose personality more than makes up for her fashion sense. Suddenly George can't get enough of Niagara and her strange quest for electrical evidence of life after death.

Book Synopsis

George Mahoney suspects he is getting a little stale at redesigning refrigerators, after fourteen years in the same job. With the arrival of his new office mate, Niagara Spense, George is forced to re-evaluate everything in his life from love and family, to science itself. Obsessed by the six feet tall Niagara, the very foundations of George's belief in facts and the physical world are shaken when she reveals that she is on an incredible quest for electrical evidence of life after death--"audible fossils" she calls them. As Niagara Spense seeks the dead, and George seeks her, everything suddenly becomes possible in a novel that makes engineering funny, and mixes the world of icemakers and buttersofteners with the miraculous.

From the Back Cover

Winner of the American Academy's Rosenthal Foundation Award
Winner of the James Jones First Novel Award
"Beguiling and wildly inventive...A funny and wholly original love story that weds the everyday to the supernatural."--"Chicago Tribune
George Mahoney suspects he is getting a little stale at redesigning refrigerators, after fourteen years in the same job. With the arrival of his new office mate, Niagara Spense, George is forced to reevaluate everything in his life from love and family, to science itself. Despite his allegiance to facts and the physical world, George becomes obsessed by the six-foot-tall Niagara, who reveals that she is on a quest for electrical evidence of life after death-"audible fossils," she calls them. As Niagara Spense seeks the dead, and George seeks her, everything suddenly becomes possible in a novel that makes engineering funny, and mixes the world of icemakers and butter softeners with the miraculous.
"Riveting ...Zuravleff has created some of the most wonderfully realized characters in current fiction."--"Dallas Morning News
"Read this book! Zuravleff fashions small moments of comic wonder in this novel of family and FM frequencies, magic and flirting, metaphysics and doughnuts."--"San Diego Tribune
"Engaging...Zuravleff's insightful yet gentle rendering of the absurd [allows] readers to connect fully with her quirky and endearing characters."--"The New York Times Book Review
"Page after page, the descriptions of the novel are laugh-out-loud funny. Smart and refreshingly tender...with a stylish ebullience reminiscent of Anne Tyler."--"News & Observer (Raleigh)
Mary Kay Zuravleff is the author of "The Bowl Is Already Broken.Her previous jobs include teaching writing and calculus, working in engineering plants, and editing for museums. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two children.

Review Quotes

"Beguiling and wildly inventive...A funny and wholly original love story that weds the everyday to the supernatural." --Chicago Tribune

"Read this book! Zuravleff fashions small moments of comic wonder in this novel of family and FM frequencies, magic and flirting, metaphysics and doughnuts." --San Diego Tribune

"Engaging...Zuravleff's insightful yet gentle rendering of the absurd [allows] readers to connect fully with her quirky and endearing characters." --The New York Times Book Review

"Page after page, the descriptions of the novel are laugh-out- loud funny. Smart and refreshingly tender...with a stylish ebullience reminiscent of Anne Tyler." --News & Observer (Raleigh)

About the Author

Mary Kay Zuravleff is the author of The Bowl Is Already Broken. A former editor of books and exhibition texts for the Smithsonian Institution, she lives in Washington, D.C., with her family.