Grief Is the Thing with Feathers

A SUNDAY TIMES TOP 100 NOVEL OF THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY

Winner of the 2016 International Dylan Thomas Prize and the Sunday Times/Peter, Fraser + Dunlop Young Writer of the Year award and shortlisted for the Guardian First Book Award and the Goldsmiths Prize.

In a London flat, two young boys face the unbearable sadness of their mother’s sudden death. Their father, a Ted Hughes scholar and scruffy romantic, imagines a future of well-meaning visitors and emptiness.

In this moment of despair they are visited by Crow – antagonist, trickster, healer, babysitter. This sentimental bird is drawn to the grieving family and threatens to stay until they no longer need him.

As weeks turn to months and the pain of loss gives way to memories, the little unit of three starts to heal.

Max Porter's extraordinary debut - part novella, part polyphonic fable, part essay on grief - marked the arrival of a thrilling new literary talent. Ten years on, readers continue to discover and fall in love with Grief is the Thing With Feathers.

SHORTLISTED FOR THE GOLDSMITHS PRIZE
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GUARDIAN FIRST BOOK AWARD