Grief is the Thing with Feathers

Max Porter

Grief is the Thing with Feathers by Max Porter explores how a father and his two young sons face the unbearable sadness of the death of the boys’ mother. Clarity, insight, and healing, as well as chaos and antagonism, appear in the unlikely and unexpected form of an imaginary crow. The crow walks alongside them as they navigate their grief, leaving only when the time feels right. Crow then provides a focus for their reflections and memories of their loss as it endures throughout the rest of their lives.

The book has been performed on stage and has also been made into a film starring Benedict Cumberbatch.

What whiteballoon thinks

Quirky, surprising, darkly funny, this book is unlike any other I have read on grief and bereavement. A mixture of poetry and narrative, it perfectly reflects the bewildering, life-changing messiness of devastating loss. By not giving the characters in the book names – just mum, dad, boys, crow – Porter allows the reader to imagine and interpret the characters in a way that works for them. Crow, a chaotic, unpredictable, ungoverned force, expresses its emotions in the only way it can, giving form and shape to feelings that are otherwise hard for dad and the boys to understand and process.

That this is a short book, readable in one sitting, only added to its impact. But one reading is not enough. Each time I return to it, I see more, find more, and understand more.

About the author

Award winning author Max Porter was born in High Wycombe in 1981. After studying for a degree at the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, followed by an MA in radical performance art, psychoanalysis, and feminism, Porter worked as the Manager at Daunts Books in Chelsea, and later as Editorial Director at Granta and Portobello Books.

The death of his father when he was just 6 years old informs his writing, much of which includes explorations of grief.