Mrs Death Misses Death

by Salena Godden

Overview

LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE

Mrs Death has had enough. She is exhausted from spending eternity doing her job and now she seeks someone to unburden her conscience to. Wolf Willeford, a troubled young writer, is well acquainted with death, but until now hadn't met Death in person - a black, working-class woman who shape-shifts and does her work unseen.

Enthralled by her stories, Wolf becomes Mrs Death's scribe, and begins to write her memoirs. Using their desk as a vessel and conduit, Wolf travels across time and place with Mrs Death to witness deaths of past and present and discuss what the future holds for humanity. As the two reflect on the losses they have experienced - or, in the case of Mrs Death, facilitated - their friendship grows into a surprising affirmation of hope, resilience and love. All the while, despite her world-weariness, Death must continue to hold humans' fates in her hands, appearing in our lives when we least expect her . . .

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781838851194
Publisher:	Canongate Books
Publication date:	02/01/2022
Edition description:	Main
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	498,479
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.30(d)

About the Author

Salena Godden is one of Britain's best loved poets and performers. She is also an activist, broadcaster, memoirist and essayist and is widely anthologised. She has published several volumes of poetry, the latest of which was Pessimism is for Lightweights, and a literary childhood memoir, Springfield Road.

Mrs Death Misses Death is her debut novel and was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. A BBC Radio 4 documentary following Godden's progress on the novel over twelve months was broadcast in 2018. In November 2020 she was made a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

@salenagodden | salenagodden.co.uk

Editorial Reviews

Winner of the Fiction Prize at Indie Book Awards 2022

A fantastically imaginative story about life, death and everything in between – a potent reminder that life is short and every second should be cherished - IDRIS ELBA

A modern-day Pilgrim’s Progress leavened with caustic wit . . . This is not light-hearted stuff, yet Godden has produced a miraculously light-hearted novel . . . an elegant, occasionally uproarious, danse macabre - Guardian

Exquisite. A daring, poetic offering that establishes Godden as one of our most exciting voices. I loved it - IRENOSEN OKOJIE

A rhythmic and powerful poetic meditation on death, life and love and the hidden mysteries of the universe; both playful and sombre, hilarious and human - NIKESH SHUKLA

In this timely and exquisite meditation on breath and its best rhyme, we see a stunning performance poet crowding all the energy, wisdom, passion and laughs of her live work into the solid ingot of this astounding novel, as profound as Cohen, as playful as Brautigan. Salena Goddess, more like - ALAN MOORE

It’s light, it’s dark, it’s twisted and it’s brilliant. As we all encounter life, so too we should all encounter Mrs Death. Poetry, prose, life and death. Salena Godden brings them together with ease. She is a wordsmith of the highest order - BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH

Dark at times – with compelling stories about miscarriages of justice, murder and racial oppression – it is nonetheless celebratory and life-affirming, aglow with love, fortitude and compassion - Daily Mail

I love Salena Godden and I love Mrs Death Misses Death. Salena, like the lead character, is a force to be reckoned with. If the page were a stage, Mrs Death is its star. She soaks in the spotlight, commanding the eye of the audience. It is an assured debut by a poet whom I hold in the highest regard - LEMN SISSAY

Salena Godden’s pin-sharp ability to mine the intricacies of human nature fuels her long-awaited debut novel, a life-affirming and unflinching treatise on death and its stark realities. Always playful, infused with her trademark humour and commitment to truth, Godden reinvents the form while staying true to an emotional honesty that’s as forthright as it is courageous. Mrs Death’s finale is some of the most powerful writing I’ve read in years. Here is necessary, beautiful work. Thank God for Godden - COURTTIA NEWLAND

Mrs. Death Misses Death is a unique novel about depression and recovery - FOREWORD REVIEWS

From the Publisher

Salena Godden's pin-sharp ability to mine the intricacies of human nature fuels her long-awaited debut novel, a life-affirming and unflinching treatise on death and its stark realities. Always playful, infused with her trademark humour and commitment to truth, Godden reinvents the form while staying true to an emotional honesty that's as forthright as it is courageous. Mrs Death's finale is some of the most powerful writing I've read in years. Here is necessary, beautiful work. Thank God for Godden

COURTTIA NEWLAND

A fantastically imaginative story about life, death and everything in between - a potent reminder that life is short and every second should be cherished

IDRIS ELBA

A rhythmic and powerful poetic meditation on death, life and love and the hidden mysteries of the universe; both playful and sombre, hilarious and human

NIKESH SHUKLA

A modern-day Pilgrim's Progress leavened with caustic wit . . . This is not light-hearted stuff, yet Godden has produced a miraculously light-hearted novel . . . an elegant, occasionally uproarious, danse macabre

Guardian

I love Salena Godden and I love Mrs Death Misses Death. Salena, like the lead character, is a force to be reckoned with. If the page were a stage, Mrs Death is its star. She soaks in the spotlight, commanding the eye of the audience. It is an assured debut by a poet whom I hold in the highest regard

LEMN SISSAY

Exquisite. A daring, poetic offering that establishes Godden as one of our most exciting voices. I loved it

IRENOSEN OKOJIE

Dark at times - with compelling stories about miscarriages of justice, murder and racial oppression - it is nonetheless celebratory and life-affirming, aglow with love, fortitude and compassion

Daily Mail

In this timely and exquisite meditation on breath and its best rhyme, we see a stunning performance poet crowding all the energy, wisdom, passion and laughs of her live work into the solid ingot of this astounding novel, as profound as Cohen, as playful as Brautigan. Salena Goddess, more like

ALAN MOORE

It's light, it's dark, it's twisted and it's brilliant. As we all encounter life, so too we should all encounter Mrs Death. Poetry, prose, life and death. Salena Godden brings them together with ease. She is a wordsmith of the highest order

BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH

This book contains traces of ghosts.” What a wonderfully evocative thought. And this audiobook is full of them. Irish-Jamaican poet, activist, memoirist, and broadcaster Salena Godden narrates her short prose and poetry with straight-up intensity and pulsing rhythm. Weaving childhood memories of a devastating apartment fire with Neil-Gaiman-like fantasy and dark Grimm’s fairy-tale imagery of towers, wolves, and witches, Godden approaches the subject of death from seemingly every possible angle. With her alluring mix of lilting Irish and sweet Jamaican accents, Godden praises, berates, cajoles, and harangues her ever-changing character Mrs. Death, who is sometimes an “old, homeless beggar woman with knotty, natty hair” and sometimes a medieval time traveler with inexhaustible vocal energy. B.P. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

MAY 2021 - AudioFile