An undeniable future bestseller by debut author James D. Kiesewetter.
"What the hell am I doing here? Rings in his head in the moments he can't distract his mind. When he lays awake at night, as he goes to work, as he makes due. He is restless and the search feels endless. All the while a finite number of moments tick away until his last - the finish line of life where he will take his last breath."
So begins Smile Your Last Breath Away, a unique and captivating novel praised by those who have read it. It attempts to answer this central question: How would you live, who would you be, and what perspectives would carry you to be capable of smiling your last breath away in your final moment before death? In this novel, you will embark on the journey to explore what goes on in the mind of someone who feels that way.
Enter Las, a sage with more questions than answers, and Jake, a boy who is so lost that the monotonous hum chips away at him every day. Together, they peruse the vast halls of their minds, helping Jake find perspectives to use in the nebulous quest for meaning - outpouring answers to the central question.
In Smile Your Last Breath Away, James takes readers on an inquisitive adventure through the inner workings of themself, inciting thoughtfulness and contemplation of one's own perspectives and life.
In a Q&A at a local bookstore, James was asked to answer his own question of how one could be capable of smiling their last breath away. "The broad answer, I believe, is meaning. But how does one live a meaningful life? What is a meaningful life? Is it even possible for life to have meaning? That is what this book is about. But you'll not be surprised by many of the ideas that surface in the book or in your mind while reading it. Because what surfaces in each reader are perspectives and beliefs deeply intertwined in the way they live their life. This book makes unsurprising ideas and perspectives look different than before.
"The beauty of a thought or idea for me is in the perspective that someone attaches to it. You can ask vastly different people the same question, hear their answers, and see that from this new angle, the same idea can look completely different. It can change the way you live, not because of the idea itself but because of how you see it and subsequently use it - just like we can turn our hand into a wolf or a butterfly with the help of a dark room, a wall, and light shone from the right place. In many ways, this book is the same: the ideas are the hand and the perspectives are the source of light, turning a familiar idea into a novel pleasure - or at least a tool for building one."
