Grief Is the Thing With Feathers

　　 “Max Porter, the judges felt, takes the common place of grief, the pall of death, the loss of loved ones, the things that we will all experience and transforms the ordinary through an extraordinary feat of imaginative prose, but prose that slips in to poetry and out again. The way it plays with the archetypal figure of Ted Hughes’ Crow is both astonishing and beguiling. It is funny, it is deeply moving.” -Chair of judges Professor Dai Smith

　　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 Feathers is a startlingly original and haunting debut by a significant new talent.

各界好評

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

　　“A heartbreaking and life-affirming meditation on the dislocating power of grief. . . . Porter’s characters express their feelings through observations that are profound and simply phrased. . . . The powerful emotions evoked in this novel will resonate with anyone who has experienced love, loss, and mourning.”―Publishers Weekly

　　“Porter delivers a staggering tale of a father grappling with the sudden loss of his wife in this sharply poetic and darkly stunning debut novel. . . . A truly exceptional work of fiction. . . . Readers will not soon forget Porter’s distinct style.”―Booklist, starred review

　　“Porter’s daringly strange story skirts disbelief to speak, engagingly and effectively, of the pain this world inflicts, of where the ghosts go, and of how we are left to press on and endure it all. Elegant, imaginative, and perfectly paced. A contribution to the literature of grief and to literature in general.”―Kirkus Reviews, starred review

　　"A haunting debut."―Brooklyn Magazine

　　“Grief Is the Thing with Feathers is heartrending, blackly funny, deeply resonant, a perfect summation of what it means to lose someone but still to love the world–and if it reminds publishers that the best books aren’t always the ones that can be pigeonholed or precis-ed or neatly packaged, so much the better.”―Sarah Crown, The Guardian

　　“Grief Is the Thing With Feathers is the most exquisite little flight of a story captured between hardback covers, and its appearance has been crafted to show us that we are in for something unusual. This deeply moving book about death and its grief-stricken consolations―love and art―appears to be no more than a scattering of text, dialogue and poetry that lifts and settles on the page, the frailest sort of thing. Yet as we read on, we become aware that the way it has been put together is robust indeed. . . . Grief is the Thing with Feathers shows us another way of thinking about the novel and its capabilities, taking us through a dark and emotionally fraught subject, one airy page after another, as though transported by wings.”―Kirsty Gunn, The Guardian

　　“Like [Ali Smith], Porter has the language-sense to know how to use simple words to get at the toughest of subjects. Like her, he knows how to be playful and serious at once. . . . A blast and a breeze and, strangely, a delight.”―Jonathan Gibbs, The Independent

　　“A meditation, in vignettes, on grief, love and literature. . . . Funny and warm and real, this little book is one to linger on and savour.”―Francesca Wade, The Telegraph

作者簡介

　　Max Porter works in publishing. He lives in South London with his wife and children. Grief Is the Thing with Feathers is his first book.