Under the Whispering Door

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What to expect

Witty, haunting, and kind, Under the Whispering Door is a gift for troubled times. TJ Klune brings us a warm hug of a story about a man who spent his life at the office - and his afterlife building a home.

From the author of joyous New York Times bestseller The House in the Cerulean Sea.

Welcome to Charon’s Crossing.
The tea is hot, the scones are fresh and the dead are just passing through.

When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own sparsely-attended funeral, Wallace is outraged. But he begins to suspect she’s right, and he is in fact dead. Then when Hugo, owner of a most peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace reluctantly accepts the truth.

Yet even in death, he refuses to abandon his life – even though Wallace spent all of it working, correcting colleagues and hectoring employees. He’d had no time for frivolities like fun and friends. But as Wallace drinks tea with Hugo and talks to his customers, he wonders if he was missing something.

The feeling grows as he shares jokes with the resident ghost, manifests embarrassing footwear and notices the stars. So when he’s given one week to pass through the door to the other side, Wallace sets about living a lifetime in just seven days.

Fans of A Man Called Ove and The Good Place will fall for this queer love story by TJ Klune.

Praise for TJ Klune's The House in the Cerulean Sea:

'I loved it. It is like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket. Simply perfect.'
- V. E. Schwab, no.1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

'A modern fairy tale about learning your true nature and what you love and will protect. It's a beautiful book.'
- Charlaine Harris, no.1 New York Times bestselling author

'1984 meets The Umbrella Academy with a pinch of Douglas Adams thrown in. Touching, tender, and truly delightful.'
- Gail Carriger, New York Times bestselling author of Soulless

'A witty, wholesome fantasy that’s likely to cause heart-swelling.'
- The Washington Post

Critics Review

  • Under the Whispering Door is a kind book, full of faith in the goodness of people . . . It broke my heart with its unflinching understanding that grief never goes away, never empties, only settles into the room of your soul like a strange souvenir. And then it healed me in the next breath

    Cassandra Khaw

  • A whimsical, warm-hearted fantasy that suggests it is never too late to make a positive change in life – or afterwards

    Guardian

  • Tenderness, wit, and skillful worldbuilding elevate this delightful tale. Fans of queer fantasy won’t want to miss this

    Publishers Weekly

  • TJ Klune is doing powerful work that inspires and impresses. He is a gift to our troubled times, and his novels are a radiant treat to all who discover them

    Locus Magazine

  • I loved it. It is like being wrapped up in a big gay blanket. Simply perfect

    V. E. Schwab on The House in the Cerulean Sea

  • Narrator Kirt Graves strikes just the right notes in this thoughtful exploration of grief, life, and the afterlife. When a decidedly un-Grim Reaper escorts Wallace Price away from his own funeral, he is seriously annoyed. He doesn’t have time to be dead, much less whatever comes after that. As Wallace learns to be a ghost and a better person, Graves softens his tone from snappish frustration to a gentler sincerity. He also conjures depth for the characters who fill Charon’s Crossing Teahouse — from patient Hugo and delightfully cranky Nelson to the sublimely ridiculous medium, Desdemona Tripplethorne. Graves matches his narrative pace to the measured unwinding of the story’s layers, focused but unhurried, in the same way that Hugo brews his therapeutic cups of tea.

    AudioFile

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