Keanu Reeves: Thoughts of death inspired my new novel ‘The Book of Elsewhere’

Keanu Reeves, the Canadian actor, has revealed the motivation behind his sci-fi novel titled ‘The Book of Elsewhere‘.

Set in an alternate world, the novel follows an immortal warrior on a millennia-long journey to understand his immortality. The central character in the plot is known only as ‘B’; an 80,000-year-old, half-mortal and half-god who longs for the ability to die.

The book is a collaborative effort of Reeves and China Mieville, the British author, and is a follow-up of the comic book series the actor created in 2021 titled ‘BRZRKR’.

Speaking about the novel during an interview with the New York Times, Reeves revealed he got inspired by his lack of comprehension of the concept of the world, death, and love.

“Maybe the creative act is a kind of talking, you know. And so maybe I have father issues and mother issues. And maybe I think about death,” the 59-year-old actor said.

“Maybe I don’t understand the violence of the world. I don’t understand that we all know we’re going to die, and we kill each other over things that are, perhaps as you look back at them, not so important. Maybe I wonder about the world, you know, how did we get here, who are we.

“I wonder about technology. I wonder about this kind of extinction motive that it seems the species has. I don’t know why we’re in such a rush to get off the planet and become digitized.

“Maybe I wonder about love. And the power of it. Why is death so strong and love so frail, and yet it’s the strongest force on the planet? So, I like to think about those things, and I thought maybe I found that they could come out in a comic book.”

‘The Book of Elsewhere’ was published on July 23, 2024, by Boom! Studios and Del Rey Books.