The Feather of Balance

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Hero archetypes

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Synopsis

A Novella One heartbeat. One measure. One ordinary life weighed against eternity. Nick Corbin dies on a Tuesday. Stroke at a highway rest stop. Six hours from home. No warning. No goodbyes. He wakes in a place that shouldn't exist: the Hall of Ma'at, where an ancient goddess places his heart on golden scales. Opposite it, a single white feather. If his heart is heavier, he's done. If it balances... the work begins. The gates are waiting. Each one demands something Nick can't afford to give: His memories. His wife. His children. His grandson. The comfortable lies he's told himself for fifty-two years. The grudges he's nursed. The people he's failed. The truth about who he really was when no one was watching. To pass through, he must build a ship from his own choices. Plant seeds of truth in fields of grief. Name the forgotten. Forgive the unforgivable, including himself. Become something more than Nicholas Corbin ever was. Become N. But the final weighing is still to come. And this time, it's not just his heart on the scales. The Feather of Balance reimagines the ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead through the eyes of a modern everyman who is a Michigan carpenter whose ordinary, useful life becomes the measure of his soul. Drawing on public domain mythological source material, this literary fantasy asks: What does it mean to live a good life? And when the scales demand an accounting, will usefulness be enough? For readers who loved The Midnight Library, Lincoln in the Bardo, and The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue.

Is The Feather of Balance appropriate for my child?

Suitable for most readers 13 and up.

An adult protagonist faces his life's moral inventory in the afterlife through Egyptian mythology. Contemplative exploration of death, regret, and redemption suitable for mature middle schoolers and up.

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