Eli Harpo's Adventure to the Afterlife

October 30, 2023
Schlich’s acerbic yet poignant debut novel (after the story collection Quantum Convention) tackles queerness and monetized religious fervor. In 2008, 13-year-old Eli Harpo is self-conscious about his weight, socially awkward, and uneasy about his sex dreams featuring Jesus. He’s also growing weary of taking part in his evangelical dad’s ministry efforts, which rely on Eli’s near-death experience at four years old. Then, wealthy televangelist and Biblical theme park proprietor Charlie Gideon shows up in their small Kentucky town with an offer. It turns out the previous star of Gideon’s Heaven ride has admitted to fabricating visions at the Florida park. The role is Eli’s if he wants it. Eli’s mom, terminally ill with cancer and beginning to openly doubt her faith, balks at the scheme but relents when Gideon promises college tuition for her son. The family wends its way south on an emotionally taxing publicity tour, which turns Eli’s misgivings into doubts about what really happened during his emergency heart surgery at age four. Schlich glides between the family trip and Eli’s college years, where he tentatively comes out as gay and falls in love with a vocal atheist who later hopes to have Eli star in a documentary. Sharp satire blends with powerful emotion and a considerate if skeptical­ approach to religious faith. This delectable send-up is full of heart. Agent: Joy Tutela, David Black Literary.