| "Afterlife" | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Short story by Stephen King | |||
| Country | United States | ||
| Language | English | ||
| Genre(s) | fantasy, psychological horror | ||
| Publication | |||
| Published in | Tin House, The Bazaar of Bad Dreams | ||
| Publication type | short story | ||
| Publisher | Tin House, Charles Scribner's Sons | ||
| Media type | |||
| Publication date | June, 2013 | ||
| Chronology | |||
| |||
"Afterlife" is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the June 2013 edition of Tin House, an American literary magazine and publisher. The story was later collected and re-introduced in the November 3, 2015 anthology The Bazaar of Bad Dreams, in which King revealed that the idea came from his own musings on mortality as he grew older. Though first published for mass consumption a year later, King read the story aloud for a charity event to raise money for scholarships at the University of Massachusetts Lowell on December 7, 2012.[1] Footage of the reading was uploaded to YouTube.[2]
"Afterlife" is the experience of a Goldman Sachs investment banker, William Andrews. He dies, surrounded by his wife and children, and then enters a bureaucratic vision of the afterlife. There, he meets a spiritual caseworker who offers him a difficult choice, seemingly with the knowledge that he has already made the choice many times before. As well as the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008, in which Goldman Sachs was implicated, the story also refers to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, the deadliest industrial disaster in the history of New York City.
- ^ "Stephen King Scares Up a Great Night".
- ^ Stephen King Premieres "Afterlife" at UMass Lowell. 11 December 2012 – via YouTube.