All of Us Together in the End is a lyrical, elegiac affirmation of the awesome, strange, otherworldly ways our loved ones remain alive to us, even when they are out of reach, by a writer The New York Times calls ‘irresistible’ and ‘utterly convincing.’
Vollmer’s family memoir, shimmering with wonder and enchantment, begins with the death of his mother from early-onset Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Soon after, unexplained phenomena (specifically flashing lights and floating orbs) appear in the woods surrounding his family’s home in rural North Carolina, where his widowed father lives. Formative memories resurge in Vollmer’s mind, particularly from his childhood in the church of Seventh-day Adventism, hastening self-reexamination and reckoning. A retired geology professor corresponds with him about “ghost lights, ” which supposedly occur more in North Carolina than any other American state. An eccentric shaman who lives in Spain administers transcendental psychotherapy to him over Zoom. And Jolene emerges, a woman endeared for decades to Vollmer’s father, holding secrets to their family’s past.
About the author
Matthew Vollmer is the author of two short-story collections as well as three collections of essays. He was the editor of A Book of Uncommon Prayer, which collects invocations from over 60 acclaimed and emerging authors, and served as co-editor of Fakes: An Anthology of Pseudo-Interviews, Faux-Lectures, Quasi-Letters, "Found" Texts, and Other Fraudulent Artifacts. His work has appeared in venues such as Paris Review, Glimmer Train, Ploughshares, Tin House, Oxford American, The Sun, The Pushcart Prize anthology, and Best American Essays. He teaches in the English Department at Virginia Tech and lives in Blacksburg, VA.
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