The History of Living Forever: A Novel

“The mystical and the romantic combine for a love story that also confronts the meaning of life” as a young man goes on quest for the elixir of life (Entertainment Weekly).

The morning after the death of his first love, Conrad Aybinder receives a bequest. Sammy Tampari was Conrad’s lover. He was his teacher. And, it turns out, he was not just a chemist, but an alchemist, searching for a mythic elixir of life. Sammy’s death was sudden, yet he somehow managed to leave twenty years’ worth of his notebooks and a storage locker full of expensive, sometimes baffling equipment in the hands of his star student.

The notebooks contain cryptic “recipes,” but no instructions; they tell his life story, but only hint at what might have caused his death. And Sammy’s research is littered with his favorite teaching question: What’s missing?

A globe-trotting, century-spanning adventure story, Jake Wolff’s The History of Living Forever introduces a cast of unforgettable characters, as it takes us deep into the mysteries of life—from first love to first heartbreak, from the long pall of grief to the irreconcilable loneliness of depression to the possibility of medical miracles, from coming of age to coming out. Hilarious, haunting, life-affirming, it asks each of us one of life’s essential questions: How far would you go for someone you love?

“Exuberant . . . An author with a refreshing restlessness, who will try anything to entertain his readers.” —The New York Times

“A melancholy pleasure.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review

“The epic sweep and sly humor . . . will remind readers of Michael Chabon’s work.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“A fresh, engrossing tale.” —Booklist, starred review

© 2024 Farrar, Straus and Giroux (E-bog): 9780374717513

Release date

E-bog: 4. september 2024