[PREORDER] Grief Is the Thing with Feathers: A Novel
This is a preorder book, available to order from 25 June to 10 July. Estimated arrival is 2–4 weeks after the preorder period ends (it may arrive sooner!).
Sometimes sorrow arrives not as a whisper but as a strange, wild visitor.
In Grief Is the Thing with Feathers, a father and his two young sons are left reeling after the sudden loss of their mother. Stunned by her absence, they drift through their London flat in a fog of loneliness and confusion. That’s when Crow, rude, raucous, funny, and fiercely tender, bursts into their world, determined to stay until they can breathe again.
Part novella, part fable, and part poetic exploration of mourning, Max Porter’s astonishing debut captures all the mess and magic of grief. With dark humor and aching honesty, this slim, unforgettable book reminds readers that healing rarely follows a straight path and that even the most broken hearts can find their way home.
📗 In The Mood For…
Healing
A raw, beautiful meditation on sorrow and the fragile, surprising ways we survive it.
✅ Gives gentle company to readers who have known loss
✅ Balances sharp wit and tenderness to offer solace without sentimentality
Understanding Myself
A heartfelt and honest look at mourning, memory, and love.
✅ Speaks directly to readers who want to reflect on their own experience of grief
✅ Honors the strange shapes that pain can take—and the small graces that help us go on
📘 Stories About…
Pain, Suffering & Recovery
A moving portrait of a family learning to live with absence.
✅ Captures the deep ache and peculiar beauty of grief
✅ Suggests that loss never fully disappears—it simply becomes part of who we are
Connection & Solitude
A story about isolation that still pulses with togetherness.
✅ Follows a father and his sons as they find their own way back to one another
✅ Reminds readers that even in the most private sadness, we are never truly alone