Grief Is the Thing with Feathers: A Novel [Paperback]

Here he is, husband and father, scruffy romantic, a shambolic scholar--a man adrift in the wake of his wife's sudden, accidental death. And there are his two sons who like him struggle in their London apartment to face the unbearable sadness that has engulfed them. The father imagines a future of well-meaning visitors and emptiness, while the boys wander, savage and unsupervised.

In this moment of violent despair they are visited by Crow--antagonist, trickster, goad, protector, therapist, and babysitter. This self-described sentimental bird, at once wild and tender, who finds humans dull except in grief, threatens to stay with the wounded family until they no longer need him. As weeks turn to months and the pain of loss lessens with the balm of memories, Crow's efforts are rewarded and the little unit of three begins to recover: Dad resumes his book about the poet Ted Hughes; the boys get on with it, grow up.

Part novella, part polyphonic fable, part essay on grief, Max Porter's extraordinary debut combines compassion and bravura style to dazzling effect. Full of angular wit and profound truths,Grief Is the Thing with Feathersis a startlingly original and haunting debut by a significant new talent.

* Winner of of the International Dylan Thomas Prize *
* Rights sold in thirteen countries *
* Finalist for the Guardian First Book Award *
* Finalist for the Goldsmiths Prize *

As resonant, elliptical and distilled as a poem,Grief Is the Thing With Feathersis one of the most moving, wildly inventive first novels you're likely to encounter this year. It's funny  in a jet-black way  yet also fiercely emotional, capturing the painful sucker-punch of loss with a fresh immediacy that rivals Joan Didion'sThe Year of Magical Thinking. . . . LiklS