Death of an Ordinary Man
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By Sarah Perry
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1 review
LONGLISTED FOR THE WOMEN’S PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2026
WINNER OF THE NERO BOOK AWARD FOR NON-FICTION 2025
LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 2026
‘Please read this book. It may very well change how you live’ Rachel Clarke
‘Profound…compelling…beautiful’ Nina Stibbe
‘Filled with love…I was spellbound’ Kathryn Mannix
‘Brilliant…so special’ Guardian
An inspiring true story about life, love and letting go
Sarah Perry’s father-in-law David died in the autumn of 2022, only nine days after a cancer diagnosis. He was in some ways a very ordinary man: he loved stamp collecting, fish and chips, comic novels and his local church. Yet as Sarah and her husband Robert nursed David through his final days, they realised how extraordinary he really was.
This loving, clear-eyed and unforgettable book shows how death may be met and understood as a part of life – a universal experience that is terrible and beautiful, intimate and real, sometimes all at once.
A Book of the Year for The Times, Guardian, Financial Times and Observer
’Beautiful and profound and completely gripping’ Mark Haddon
’A must-read’ The Times
’We cannot be but somewhat changed by this remarkable book’ Telegraph
’This book will be a lifeline for so many people’ Seán Hewitt
’Perry is in a league of her own’ Sara Collins
Reviews
This book really surprised me. It tells the story of the death of the author's father-in-law, David, after he is diagnosed with oesophageal cancer at the age of 77. David's decline is rapid and shocking. Within days the author and her husband have moved into David's bungalow to care for him around the clock, with great tenderness. They are taught by nurses how to move him, wash him and dress him. Their experience of health care ranges from incredibly kind to brutally unfeeling - the first GP to make a home visit insists that a very weak David must make a snap decision about whether he wants to be resuscitated.
It is an ordinary death, but the retelling of it is anything but ordinary. I found it as gripping as a thriller and extremely powerful and affecting.
