Richard Beard & John Niven

Like most men in their early 30s, Lazarus has plans that don’t involve dying. Then he falls ill. His sisters think Jesus can help, but given the history of their friendship, Lazarus disagrees, and he soon discovers that returning from the dead isn't easy. Beard’s thrillingly inventive novel, Lazarus is Dead, has a perfect Festival partner in Niven’s The Second Coming, in which God shows up on Earth in 2011 and is not best pleased with the scene he surveys.

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