Lucille and Harold Hargrave lost their eight year old son, Jacob, in 1966 due to an accidental drowning. Fifty years later, he has returned to them, and he is still an eight year old boy. All around the world, the deceased are returning back to their families. They are not zombies but are actual flesh and blood individuals. The government doesn't know what to do with them and not even Lucille and Harold can agree on what or who Jacob really is. How will the appearance of THE RETURNED impact their lives and the small Southern town in which they reside?

THE RETURNED is a deeply moving, haunting tale that asks readers to ponder how they would respond if someone they lost could return, if even for a short while. Would you respond with love and joy to have a second chance to tell them you loved them or would you react in fear, questioning their very humanness? Through Lucille and Harold's story, we explore these possibilities as the country and their town struggles to find meaning and a response to THE RETURNED.

Lucille and Harold are phenomenal main characters. Jason Mott does a marvelous job at showing us the love that exists between them and the heartache that has haunted them since that awful day in 1966. I love how we see each one of them step up to defend their son when the world begins turning against THE RETURNED and groups promoting "The True Living" emerge. Agent Martin Bellamy, the family's government liaison throughout the story, is a bit of a mystery and the author's note at the end puts an interesting perspective on his character.

Jason Mott's exquisite use of language makes the storyline of THE RETURNED flow smoothly and beautifully. THE RETURNED is not an action packed tale but rather is the sort of story that makes you stop and think about your own losses and missed opportunities. THE RETURNED is both heartbreaking and full of love and joy as Jason Mott superbly conveys the emotional quandary a second chance with a deceased love one would cause. THE RETURNED is a beautiful tale of life, loss, and love that haunts the reader long after the last page is turned.

Book Summary

"Jacob was time out of sync, time more perfect than it had been. He was life the way it was supposed to be all those years ago. That's what all the Returned were."  

Harold and Lucille Hargrave's lives have been both joyful and sorrowful in the decades since their only son, Jacob, died tragically at his eighth birthday party in 1966. In their old age they've settled comfortably into life without him, their wounds tempered through the grace of time…. Until one day Jacob mysteriously appears on their doorstep—flesh and blood, their sweet, precocious child, still eight years old. 

All over the world people's loved ones are returning from beyond. No one knows how or why this is happening, whether it's a miracle or a sign of the end. Not even Harold and Lucille can agree on whether the boy is real or a wondrous imitation, but one thing they know for sure: he's their son. As chaos erupts around the globe, the newly reunited Hargrave family finds itself at the center of a community on the brink of collapse, forced to navigate a mysterious new reality and a conflict that threatens to unravel the very meaning of what it is to be human. 

With spare, elegant prose and searing emotional depth, award-winning poet Jason Mott explores timeless questions of faith and morality, love and responsibility. A spellbinding and stunning debut, The Returned is an unforgettable story that marks the arrival of an important new voice in contemporary fiction.