Things I Learned While I Was Dead

How much is one life worth, and what would you sacrifice to save it? For Calico, the answer is simple: nothing is more important than preserving her sister’s life. No cost is too great. Until it is

Saving Asha. That’s my religion. That’s my science Without Asha, there is no me.

Asha is dead. Years of medical treatment were not enough to heal her. The only way 17-year-old Calico can save her younger sister now is by joining her in death at least until modern medicine can bring them both back to healthy life. Cryogenics is the answer: Scientific. Legal. Safe. Or so Dr Fates would have her believe. He plans to preserve the sisters’ bodies until his biotechnology research finds a cure for Asha.

But when Calico is brought back to life, she’s in a post-climate catastrophe, low-tech future, trapped in a research facility. She’s at risk of being sold off to a sinister enforced breeding programme. And worst of all Asha is missing.

Calico must find a way to save her sister, herself, and the new friends she’s made among the other test subjects. But first, she has to unravel the secrets the facility is hiding and reveal the lies she has been part of.

In this striking debut, Kathryn Clark raises poignant questions about the ethics of medical science, humans playing god, the consequences of our choices, and the place of consent in healthcare.

Praise for Things I Learned While I Was Dead:

• A haunting tale filled with emotional highs and lows. Kenechi Udogu

• A heart-stopping (literally!) concept. Melissa Welliver

• I was hooked from page one and I could not put it down! S. A. Gales

• Absolutely unputdownable! Finbar Hawkins

About the Author

Kathryn Clark is a graduate of the Bath Spa MA Writing for Young People. Things I Learned While I Was Dead came second in the Faber Imagined Futures Prize. Her work has been long/shortlisted for awards including Times/Chicken House, Mslexia Children’s Novel, Bath Children’s Novel, and Searchlight Novel Opening. She was runner-up in the Book Pipeline Novel Contest, and winner of the Arvon Novel Opening Competition.

Kathryn works as a freelance writing mentor. She lives in Gloucestershire with her family and two dogs.