Claire Bidwell Smith follows The Rules of Inheritance with After This—an exploration of the afterlife that is part personal and part prescriptive, an invitation on a journey into the unknown.

In her therapy practice specializing in grief, Smith confronts the quandary of what happens next. In a dynamic five-part structure, she answers the unanswerable questions—Will I ever see my parents again? Can my parents see me now, even though they are gone? Will I remain connected to my own daughters when I die?—for herself and for all of us. Chronicling our steps along the path that bridges this world and the next, she undergoes past-life regressions, sessions with mediums and psychics, and immerses herself in the ceremonies of organized religion and the rigors of scientific experimentation.

After This is unique in the power of the personal that underlies the book's message: what we believe about what happens next affects everything about how we live—and love—right now.