The Mystical Adventures of Stavros Papadakis

"Dying was the best thing that ever happened to him."

An exciting literary debut, The Mystical Adventures of Stavros Papadakis is the story of one man’s quest for meaning and redemption following a near-death experience. Stavros Papadakis, a successful yet epically dysfunctional Boston defense attorney, returns to his former home on Christmas day to visit his son. There, the unimaginable happens: heart attack, coma, and a trip to heaven and hell—or so Stavros claims. Back on earth, as he comes to understand that he was a terrible husband and an even worse father, Stavros determines to change his life and make amends. But there’s a problem: neither his ex-wife nor his son want anything to do with him. Meanwhile, Stavros’s charismatic law partner, the country’s most celebrated trial lawyer, demands that Stavros tell no one about his afterlife journey—it would be bad for business.

Set during the run-up to the 2016 election, and loosely structured around a sensational date-rape trial, the novel explores the contentiousness of contemporary life and the persistence of age-old themes: love, family, friendship, and the mystery of existential truth. By turns funny and poignant, quirky and hard-hitting, The Mystical Adventures of Stavros Papadakis is a powerful, provocative tale for our times.