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Novels about death

30 replies

HealthyFats · 29/03/2023 07:26

I’m reading a lot of non-fiction about death at the moment- not sure why, maybe some sort of mid-life crisis. I’d like to add in some fiction and am looking for suggestions.

Nothing gory please- I mean more fiction about people considering the end of life, trying to make sense of being mortal. May or may not feature actual death. (I realise you could argue that all art is about death in some way, so I suppose I mean novels where it is more explicitly the case.)

Thank you.

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MadEyeMoodysEye · 02/04/2023 17:43

Hamnet is the most moving and heartbreaking portrait of grief I've ever read.

Blackcountryexile · 02/04/2023 14:58

A Terrible Kindness by Jo Browning Wroe. A beautifully written and compassionate book which deals with the Aberfan disaster and a more personal death of a father.

Tryphenia · 01/04/2023 12:56

I found it sentimental, but it’s been a huge bestseller — Anne Griffin’s Listening Still, a novel about a smalltown Irish undertaker who can talk to the dead while their bodies are at the funeral home.

mrsdolittle · 01/04/2023 12:47

Remembered another one. This is How it Ends - Kathleen MacMahon

Mycatsbigtoe · 31/03/2023 23:30

Five People You Meet in Heaven - Mitch Albom

crispinglovershighkick · 31/03/2023 23:26

Joan Didion, both Magical Thinking and Blue Nights.

Exl · 31/03/2023 23:19

The Harry Potter series deals with death from many different angles (ghosts, dying friends, villains trying to be immortal, dead parents, facing death yourself) and it’s quite moving and very well done. Her mum died while she wrote the books and it shows.

TattiePants · 31/03/2023 23:05

@FeelingsAreNotFacts and @Tryphenia I’ve read both of these in the last week and loved them both. I don’t think I’ve cried at a book as much as I did reading A Monsters Calls, I was a proper snotty mess!

For nonfiction try Smoke Gets in Your Eyes & Other Lessons From the Crematory by Catlin Doughty. It’s about Doughty’s experiences of working in a crematorium and dispels a lot of the myths around death.

mrsdolittle · 31/03/2023 21:23

I've just finished Someday, Maybe by Onyi Nwabineli. Sort of about death - story of a young woman dealing with her husband's suicide. Stunningly good - but perhaps not quite what you are after.

happyumwelt · 31/03/2023 17:09

Maybe Burial Rights by Hannah Kent.

nobird · 31/03/2023 00:11

Another fiction one - Being Dead by Jim Crace

Another non-fiction - Stiff by Mary Roach

nobird · 31/03/2023 00:10

Fiction:

All My Puny Sorrows by Miriam Toews

I Heard the Owl Call my Name by Margaret Craven

Grief is a Thing with Feathers by Max Porter

Non fiction:

My Father’s Wake by Kevin Toolis

How We Die by Sherwin B Nuland

Rinkydinkydoodle · 30/03/2023 23:53

The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion might be some of the best writing I’ve ever read on the death of a loved one.
Zero K, Don de Lillo - separating death and consciousness. Stunning passage positing what the brain does when cut loose from the body.

FetlocksBlowing · 30/03/2023 23:49

I just read The Raptures...can't remember the author. Loads of mind blowing stuff about death, so beautifully written.

OllyBJolly · 30/03/2023 23:49

The One Hundred Years of Lenni and Margot by Marianne Cronin. Wonderfully written.

Tryphenia · 30/03/2023 23:38

Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. Though that’s mostly post-mortem.

FeelingsAreNotFacts · 30/03/2023 23:36

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness

TigerDroveAgain · 30/03/2023 22:21

The Midnight Library

Marsyas · 30/03/2023 22:18

Mayflies by Andrew O’Hagan

snowspider · 30/03/2023 22:16

After the End Claire Mackintosh not like her other fiction, it's child related so bear that in mind. It is about the conflict involved for parents of a child when they don't agree on care and also fight with medical opinion

mum2jakie · 30/03/2023 22:08

Exit by Belinda Bauer

SoCunningYouCanStickATailOnItAndCallItAFox · 29/03/2023 19:26

A fine balance by rohinton mistry is a fabulous book and though not about death specifically it features and the whole thread through the book is rather meaning of life-ish through the examination of various lives lived.

Oldermum84 · 29/03/2023 19:25

How To Stop Time by Matt Haig.

Chocolateydrink · 29/03/2023 19:23

Death and the Penguin by Andrey Kurkov? About an obituary writer.

ClaraThePigeon · 29/03/2023 12:28

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy.