Things I Learned While I Was Dead

Discover the heart-wrenching YA sci-fi about sisterhood and the ethics of medical science

Kathryn Clark

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571385874
• Year: 2025

Asha is dead. Years of medical treatment were not enough to heal her. The only way 17-year-old Calico can save her younger sister now is by joining her in death - at least until modern medicine can bring them both back to healthy life. Cryogenics is the answer: Scientific. Legal. Safe. Or so Dr Fates would have her believe. He plans to preserve the sisters' bodies until his biotechnology research finds a cure for Asha.

But when Calico is brought back to life, she's in a low-tech, sub-fertile future, trapped in a research facility. She's at risk of being sold off to a sinister enforced breeding programme. And worst of all - Asha is missing.

Calico must find a way to save her sister, herself, and the new friends she's made among the other test subjects. But first she has to unravel the secrets the facility is hiding and reveal the lies she has been part of.

In this striking debut, Kathryn Clark raises poignant questions about the ethics of medical science, humans playing god, the consequences of our choices, and the place of consent in healthcare.

Table of contents

• Landing Page
• Review
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• A Note from the Author
• Day Zero
• Lost Days
• Found Days
• Lost Days
• End Days
• One Year Later
• Acknowledgements
• Resources
• About the Author
• Copyright