No one knew where the books came from, and few even knew that they existed. In fact, Zooey, Lola, and Aaden were three out of just five people in the world who had their books in their possession. Three out of five people who knew how many pages were left of their lives.
~
Zooey remembered the day he stopped smiling; it was years before he met Lola or Aaden. He stopped smiling the day he found his book. In the words of The Life and Times of Zooey Musgrave...
It was a sunny day; not at all the day you’d imagine something extraordinary occuring. Zooey didn’t quite remember where he found it, or how he happened upon it, for that matter. All he could remember was running home in the sudden rain, clutching the book to his chest.
Ever since then, Zooey had been careful; with the book and with his life. Everything he did took up pages.

“Zooey, dearest,” Lola said gently. “You’re doing it again.”
“Doing what?” he snapped, knowing what.
“Obsessing.” she whispered.
Zooey pulled his eyes from his book.