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Book Signing with Anne de Marcken, author of It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over promotional image
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Book Signing with Anne de Marcken, author of It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over

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About It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over

Co-winner of the 2022 Novel Prize, this incredible life-after-death novel asks us to consider how much of our memory, of our bodies, of the world as we know it — how much of what we love can we lose before we are lost? And then what happens? 

CO-WINNER OF THE NOVEL PRIZE

WINNER OF THE URSULA K. LE GUIN PRIZE

WINNER OF THE VCU CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD

WINNER OF A PACIFIC NORTHWEST BOOK AWARD

This third perspective on myself is disconcerting. 

The heroine of the spare and haunting It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over is voraciously alive in the afterlife. Adrift yet keenly aware, she notes every bizarre detail of her new reality. And even if she has forgotten her name and much of what connects her to her humanity, she remembers with an implacable and nearly unbearable longing the place where she knew herself and was known—where she loved and was loved. Traveling across the landscapes of time and of space, heading always west, and carrying a dead but laconically opinionated crow in her chest, our undead narrator encounters and loses parts of her body and her self in one terrifying, hilarious, and heartbreaking situation after another. 

A bracing writer of great nerve and verve, Anne de Marcken bends reality (and the reader’s mind) with throwaway assurance. It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over plumbs mortality and how it changes everything, except possibly love. Delivering a near-Beckettian whopping to the reader’s imagination, this is one of the sharpest and funniest novels of recent years, a tale for our dispossessed times.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anne de Marcken is a queer interdisciplinary artist and writer living on unceded land of the Coast Salish people in Olympia, WA, in the United States. She is the founding editor and publisher of the 3rd Thing.

About It Lasts Forever and Then It's Over

Co-winner of the 2022 Novel Prize, this incredible life-after-death novel asks us to consider how much of our memory, of our bodies, of the world as we know it — how much of what we love can we lose before we are lost? And then what happens? 

CO-WINNER OF THE NOVEL PRIZE

WINNER OF THE URSULA K. LE GUIN PRIZE

WINNER OF THE VCU CABELL FIRST NOVELIST AWARD

WINNER OF A PACIFIC NORTHWEST BOOK AWARD

This third perspective on myself is disconcerting. 

The heroine of the spare and haunting It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over is voraciously alive in the afterlife. Adrift yet keenly aware, she notes every bizarre detail of her new reality. And even if she has forgotten her name and much of what connects her to her humanity, she remembers with an implacable and nearly unbearable longing the place where she knew herself and was known—where she loved and was loved. Traveling across the landscapes of time and of space, heading always west, and carrying a dead but laconically opinionated crow in her chest, our undead narrator encounters and loses parts of her body and her self in one terrifying, hilarious, and heartbreaking situation after another. 

A bracing writer of great nerve and verve, Anne de Marcken bends reality (and the reader’s mind) with throwaway assurance. It Lasts Forever and Then It’s Over plumbs mortality and how it changes everything, except possibly love. Delivering a near-Beckettian whopping to the reader’s imagination, this is one of the sharpest and funniest novels of recent years, a tale for our dispossessed times.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Anne de Marcken is a queer interdisciplinary artist and writer living on unceded land of the Coast Salish people in Olympia, WA, in the United States. She is the founding editor and publisher of the 3rd Thing.

Special Instructions
Books available for purchase in store for author signing
More about Shelf Life Books
Shelf Life Books is a fun and funky independent bookstore located in the heart of Carytown across from the Byrd Theatre. Our two floors of new and used books are under the expert supervision of store cats Page and Mylar. Our staff of passionate readers is ready to help you discover your next favorite book (or ten) or help you select the perfect gift.
When & Where
Nov 5, 2025, 11:30am to 12:30pm Timezone: EST
Free


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