The Call: A Novel of Grief, Technology, and Letting Go

Her father died two years ago. His car was pulled from the lake. His body was never found.

Elara never got to say goodbye, so she never stopped talking to him. Every text she sends to his old number comes back marked Read.

She takes that as proof he's alive.

Her mother buried a husband and is losing a daughter. Across the city, a stranger keeps opening messages meant for a dead man — and can't bring herself to answer.

The Call is a novel about the space between loss and acceptance, and what modern grief does with the silence in between. Told across three perspectives over a single weekend, it asks the question nobody wants to answer: how long can you keep someone alive by refusing to let them go?

For anyone who has ever stared at a phone, waiting for a message that isn't coming.