Human connection. How do we define it anymore? Is texting with people on the internet you have never had the pleasure to meet in real life “human connection”? Or does only a firm handshake and facing someone over a tabletop count? How far is the reach of human connection between those with only a small bit of recognition between them? Jessica Strawser’s THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW gives us a relationship that should not be, yet blooms from the most unexpected set of experiences.

As an end-of-life doula, Nova Huston’s job is to help the terminally ill create the atmosphere in which they would most like to die. She is not, as Mason Shaylor --- the rock star and her erstwhile client --- calls her, a “premature death specialist.” Only those who know that they are slowly leaving behind earth and all its accoutrement can work with her. She is not Dr. Kevorkian.

"THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW would be a fantastic book club selection. It will provide you with a wide variety of topics to talk about and a philosophy that, while couched in an entertaining story, might give you a new perspective on one of life’s absolutes."

However, Mason, who is sick of the sycophants and the rock star lifestyle, tells her that he is terminally ill, and she takes on his case. Although he is younger than most of her clients (not to mention good-looking and available), Nova decides that he deserves his appropriate end-of-life wishes. However, the more she gets to know him, the more she likes him and vice versa. Thus a relationship begins to bloom where there is no future for it. Or is there?

Early on in this endearing and enchanting book about the questions of life and death and human connection, Mason’s mother sheds some light on what has happened to him. And once Nova has this information, we go backwards in time to understand how this momentous episode has come to pass and what Nova is going to do about it.

The book jumps right in as Mason arrives at a death doula group and asks for help. He is then interviewed, and head doula Kelly sends him to Nova, who handles the cases of those who aren’t elderly with a life of experience to rehash and celebrate before their end comes. Strawser doesn’t waste time setting up the story and the mystery surrounding Mason’s actions. However, after that is declared, the book moves back in time to help us better understand what drew these two unlikely people together and just what kind of a connection they really made.

The adventures of Mason and Nova are charming and fun. As we get further glimpses of their lives, we find ourselves unsure and curious about Mason’s decision. I feel like I can’t really tell a lot more about this story so as not to reveal any spoilers. It is a lovely work woven from our darkest nightmares and our most romantic dreams.

In the US, in particular, we have a culture that is terrified of death and staves it off in every way. Look younger, eat better, exercise until you drop (but not permanently). Stay alive at all costs. We’re even hoarding potassium iodide in case we get nuked. The general consensus of our national mindset is that death is the whisper in the back of a church, the thing that dares not to be spoken about in polite society. However, that view is changing. So many cultures have a way of celebrating the life of their loved ones when they die, and it is really refreshing to read a book that starts from a very different perspective simply by offering its characters this most unique framework in which to run amok.

THE NEXT THING YOU KNOW would be a fantastic book club selection. It will provide you with a wide variety of topics to talk about and a philosophy that, while couched in an entertaining story, might give you a new perspective on one of life’s absolutes.