Louis Drax is a boy like no other. He is brilliant and strange, and every year something violent seems to happen to him. His psychologist is baffled, and his mother lives in constant panic. He has always managed to survive–to, land on his feet, like a cat. But cats have only nine lives, and Louis has used up eight, one for every year.

On his ninth birthday, Louis goes on a picnic with his parents and falls off a cliff. The details are shrouded in mystery. Louis's mother is shell-shocked; his father has vanished. And after some confusion Louis himself, miraculously alive but deep in a coma, arrives at Dr. Pascal Dannachet's celebrated coma clinic.

The Ninth Life of Louis Drax is the story of a family falling apart, told in the vivid voices of its comatose son and of Dr. Dannachet as he is drawn into the Draxes' circle. Full of astonishing twists and turns, this is a masterful tale of the secrets the human mind can hide.

“Families are torn apart, scientists are confounded by the miraculous, and the human heart unleashes its many secrets. Jensen's gift for black humor and off-kilter narratives shines throughout this page-turner, and her understanding of fractured psyches and their ability to heal is remarkable. The idiosyncrasies of her peculiar characters only make them more engaging, and at the end of Jensen's gripping tale, the reader is left eager for more.”—Publishers Weekly

"Liz Jensen has written a remarkable suspense novel: tart, mysterious, and wrenching."—Anthony Minghella, director of The English Patient and Cold Mountain

"Jensen has a real gift for wickedly black humor."—Publishers Weekly

"Assured, hilarious, and insightful."—Time Out
"Jensen is becoming one of our best writers, sometimes surreal, sometimes down to earth, always with a great and embracing human sympathy." —Mail on Sunday

"Sharp, funky, funny, and prophetic."—Fay Weldon

Liz Jensen is the acclaimed author of four novels, most recently War Crimes for the Home. She lives in London.