The cover of the book has a quote from Johathan Levi, Los Angeles Times Book Review - "An original - an exquisitely gentle and unsentimental tale on the evolution of love." I would say the operative word here is "unsentimental". While I was completely absorbed by the "Planet Earth" type descriptions of death and life, I was less so with the characters themselves. I became bored with the chapters that focused on Joseph and Celice's lives before their death. There was also no plausible explanation for their only daughter's disdain of her parents. I came away not feeling anything in particular for the main characters and only confusion about the daughter's behavior and response to their deaths.