Passage

Passage is a novel by Connie Willis published in 2001. It was nominated for the Nebula Award for Best Novel in 2001 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2002. It won the Locus Award for Best Novel in 2002. Nominally a science fiction story, Passage concerns itself with the efforts of a research psychologist to understand the phenomenon of near-death experience by interviewing hospital patients after they are revived following clinical death. The protagonist allies herself with another researcher who can induce a pseudo-near death experience, but they have trouble finding volunteers who can have a near death experience but are not affiliated with a particularly persistent charlatan researcher into the phenomenon, and she eventually elects to undergo the process herself. She finds herself wandering through a dream-like version of the Titanic, encountering people known to her who have died recently, or are themselves symbolically near death. The dream motif is reflected in her... full article at wikipedia