The Second Chances of Priam Wood

Priam Wood is a painter, but when the colors of his life coalesce in unwanted ways, he is unable to change the canvas he has created. While he dies alone with no one at his side, he longs for his ballerina Ellie to return, but she is gone and there is no way to get her back...or is there?

Death greets Priam in the form of a white abyss where a golden retriever informs him that he has the chance to relive the seven days of his life that he regrets the most. Before each of his second chances begin however, Priam must first relive each of the seven days the original way they happened, as a passenger within his own body, witnessing the day for what it was while being unable to do anything at all. He has to live through the death of his mother, the end of his relationship with his brother, the tragedy that befalls his son Charlie, and the loss of his one true love Ellie all over again.

During his journey, he is able to amend occurrences in certain ways, but in doing so, his second chances are put on an entirely new trajectory. The seven days are connected and thus, as he begins to alter events that happened during his life, what he comes to fix later on no longer even exists. When he reaches the end, his second days are incomparable to how his life originally went.

The Second Chances of Priam Wood is a story about realizing that not everything that happens in our lives can be explained, and that regardless of the tribulations we face, we must never give up.

Alexander Rigby is the author of The Second Chances of Priam Wood.