Resurrecting Sunshine

Ten years in the future, scientists involved with the secretive Project Orpheus are bringing back the dead through cloned cells and preserved memories. After the famous singer Marybeth—known to her fans as Sunshine—drowns, 17-year-old Adam, her guitarist, onetime boyfriend, and confidant, is called into service so that his harvested memories can fill in the gaps to help her cheat death. Using this thought-provoking framework, debut author Koosis leads readers through a labyrinth of moral, spiritual, and emotional dilemmas explored through complex characters grappling with loss. Marybeth comes to life, so to speak, through Adam’s detailed recollections: their initial meeting in foster care, the patchwork family they created and lost in a bus crash, and the weight of coping with her death. Adam’s new friend Gen, daughter of Project Orpheus’s founder, becomes his lone ally, but the project itself is rife with paradox as Adam resists saddling the clone with the same heartbreak that contributed to the real Marybeth’s demise and characters question why only the wealthy get to play God. Koosis’s philosophical tale thoughtfully examines the ambiguity of what makes us who we are. Ages 13–up. Agent: Brianne Johnson, Writers House. (Oct.)