March 2026 Book of the Month | Emma recommends... Death of an Ordinary Man - Sarah Perry

Emma says... The brilliance of this memoir of the dying and death of Perry’s father-in-law lies in how the ordinariness and extraordinariness of life and death are shown in their coexistence and confusing equality – neither diminishing or cancelling out the other. David is almost boringly ordinary, and yet uniquely him, a life that can and never will be repeated. His death is also completely normal, and yet Perry describes eloquently and empathetically how it is monumental and almost mystical. Of course, this book is sad, just as the pain and parting of death is sad, but it is profoundly moving, beautiful, and compelling in its message that – ultimately – none of us is ordinary.

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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

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.