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Death of an Ordinary Man

Sarah Perry

$49.99

Hardback

Forthcoming
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English
Jonathan Cape Ltd
02 October 2025
An unflinching and profoundly moving account of caring until death, from Booker-Prize-longlisted Sarah Perry

'Please read this book. It may very well change how you live' Rachel Clarke

'I was spellbound' Kathryn Mannix

Death of an Ordinary Man is an unforgettable account of this universal aspect of life. It is not a book about grief- it is a book about dying, and it is a book about family, and care and love.

Sarah Perry's father-in-law David died in the autumn of 2022, only nine days after a cancer diagnosis. Until then he'd been a healthy and happy man- he loved stamp collecting, fish and chips, comic novels, his local church, and the Antiques Roadshow. He was in some ways a very ordinary man, but as he began to die, it became clear how extraordinary he was.

Sarah and her husband Robert nursed David themselves at home, eventually with the help of carers and visiting nurses. They bathed and cleaned and dressed him, comforted him in pain, sat with him through waking and sleeping, talked to him, sang to him, prayed with him. Day by day and hour by hour, they witnessed what happens to the body and spirit as death approaches and finally arrives.

'By the end I was left shaken, deeply moved' Christos Tsiolkas

'This book will be a lifeline for so many people' Sean Hewitt

'To read this book is a privilege, a gift on the craft of dying' Amy Key
By:  
Imprint:   Jonathan Cape Ltd
Country of Publication:   United Kingdom
Dimensions:   Height: 224mm,  Width: 143mm,  Spine: 21mm
Weight:   317g
ISBN:   9781787336001
ISBN 10:   178733600X
Pages:   208
Publication Date:  
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  Professional and scholarly ,  ELT Advanced ,  Primary
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming

Sarah Perry is the internationally bestselling author of the novels Enlightenment, Melmoth, The Essex Serpent and After Me Comes the Flood, and the non-fiction Essex Girls. She is a winner of the Waterstones Book of the Year Award and the British Book of the Year Award. Enlightenment was longlisted for the Booker Prize 2024 and her other work has been nominated for major literary prizes including the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Dylan Thomas Prize, the Folio Prize and the Costa Novel Award. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

Reviews for Death of an Ordinary Man

I have not been moved like this by a book in a very long time. Death of an Ordinary Man is a masterful piece of writing. It gives dignity and weight to something as ordinary, as extraordinary, as death. By redeeming a common experience in all its intimacy, panic, disorientation and unexpected light, this book will be a lifeline for so many people. Those of us who have witnessed the death of a loved one will thank Sarah Perry for witnessing us in return. -- Seán Hewitt Sarah Perry’s Death of an Ordinary Man is an act of devotion, not only to her father-in-law but to the art of memoir. What makes this book incredibly special is its intimate attentiveness to dying – how it transforms the subject and their witnesses – in Perry’s intelligent, precise and radiant prose. To read this book is a privilege, a gift on the craft of dying. I know I’ll reach for it when I need both courage and consolation -- Amy Key


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