Leaving This Life Behind Author:Howard Levine Leaving This Life Behind explores the existence of the afterlife and the complicated, tenuous connections between the deceased and the living. The story is narrated, in alternating chapters, by Sharon Galdoni and her husband Paul. Sharon dies in a car crash in the first chapter and describes her new "improved" life in the hereafter. The improvem... more »ent comes at a cost, a lingering grief over her separation from her three-year-old son Kenny. Sharon's self-absorbed husband Paul isn't attending adequately to the boy's upbringing. Kenny's nursery school teacher, Cheryl, responds to the boy's need for nurturing and tutors him. An affair ensues between Paul and Cheryl, a relationship that creates additional strain between Paul and his bereaved mother and sister-in-law. Conflict with the in-;aws over Kenny's rearing and the child's near-fatal poisoning lead to the novel's unexpectedly joyous ending.« less