New voices: 'Trial of Fallen Angels' by James Kimmel Jr.

James Kimmel has written a book, 'The Trial of Fallen Angels.' (Photo: NONE NONE)

Debut novelist James Kimmel Jr. asks big questions in 'The Trial of Fallen Angels'Dead heroine must explore justice vs. forgivenessKimmel gave up his career as a lawyer to run counseling programs in prisons

6:14PM EST November 20. 2012 - The Trial of Fallen Angels by James Kimmel Jr. (Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam, 372 pp.)

THE BOOK

What it's about: A debut novel starring a lawyer and new mom who wakes up to discover she's dead — and part of an elite legal team handling souls facing the Final Judgment in the afterlife.

Why it's notable: Books about heaven are flying off shelves and onto best-seller lists. One early review called Angels "a heady combination of the movie What Dreams May Come, John Grisham's best work and Dante's Divine Comedy."

Memorable line: "Oddly enough, accepting my own death wasn't terrifying. It was, in a way, liberating."

THE AUTHOR

Quick bio: Growing up in rural Pennsylvania, Kimmel, 48, was bullied because he didn't fit in among the farm kids (his father was an insurance agent). After his beagle was shot and killed, Kimmel took off with a loaded revolver but stopped short of shooting his tormentors. Instead, he chose law school, seeing it as a path to justice. As a successful attorney, however, he began to question his legal work and its effect on him and his clients. Today, Kimmel lives outside Philadelphia and runs peer-to-peer mental health counseling programs in Pennsylvania prisons. A Quaker, he is married with two children.

Time spent writing: He started the novel when his daughter, now 17, was 10 months old.

Apocalyptic appeal: "People are fascinated by the end of the world ... It makes us consider our own mortality and what that is going to mean for each other."

TV doppelganger: Yes, people do sometimes ask if Jimmy Kimmel wrote his novel. Same name, different guy.

Deirdre Donahue considers her job - writing about books authors for USA TODAY - to be an honor and privilege. Lit major ever immersed in a book. Platform and genre: irrelevant. Human craving for story - eternal.

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