THE MAN WHO REFUSED TO DIE A Parallel Requiem in Twelve Movements

When jazz cornetist Ezren Duval dies on a WWII battlefield in Italy, reality fractures. A parallel version of himself—one who never went to war—awakens in New Orleans with fragmented memories and an impossible musical gift. As multiple versions of his soul begin to converge during Mardi Gras, the city itself starts to unravel.

Caught between worlds, Z must choose between infinite possibility and singular love when he meets Sabelle, a seamstress who dreams of dancing with men she's never met. Their romance unfolds across multiple timelines, documented in photographs that show moments that never happened and music that plays itself in empty rooms.

But Z's existence comes at a cosmic price. As mirrors crack throughout the Quarter and reality develops a stutter, he faces an ultimatum from Papa Trevan, the Loa of the Crossroads: return to death, live forgotten, or become an eternal guardian—unless love proves strong enough to rewrite the fundamental laws of existence.

A lyrical blend of magical realism and jazz mysticism, The Man Who Refused to Die explores how music becomes the language between worlds, how love transcends the boundaries of possibility, and how sometimes the most impossible things are the most necessary. Set in a New Orleans where the supernatural feels natural and second lines are soul processions, this is a story about choosing connection over perfection and proving that some songs are too beautiful to be limited by the normal rules about what can and cannot be.

Perfect for readers of Erin Morgenstern, Isabel Allende, and anyone who believes that love is the only force strong enough to make the impossible inevitable.