Grief is the Thing with Feathers is a profoundly moving book centred around death by Max Porter. The title is inspired by Hope is the Thing with Feathers – a poem by Emily Dickinson. The poem is a metaphor that says that hope is a bird “that perches in the soul” and that it sings when times get tough; it’s a way of saying that hope is one of the things that keep us moving during hard times.

Grief is the Thing with Feathers captures the realness of grief and the sucker punch you feel when you’ve experienced a loss. The story is about a young woman who suddenly passes away, leaving behind two small sons and a beloved husband. Their friends and family offer them support and couldn’t be kinder, but the father and sons are too shocked to grieve. 

After the death of their mother and wife, a crow moves in with the grieving boys and father. During the middle of the night, the crow appears in “a rich smell of decay, a sweet furry stink of just-beyond-edible food, and moss, and leather, and yeast”, where the crow plans on staying until the family no longer need him. 

Grief is much greater than us; when grief occurs, it usually takes over. When in a state of grief, nothing makes sense at all, and life almost becomes entirely absurd.