A Trick I Learned from Dead Men

A Trick I Learned from Dead Men

by KittyAldridge (Author)

Synopsis

After the disappearance of their father and the sudden death of their mother, Lee Hart and his deaf brother, Ned, imagine all is lost until Lee lands a traineeship at their local funeral home and discovers there is life after death. Here, in the company of a crooning ex-publican, a closet pole vaulter, a terminally-ill hearse driver, and the dead of their local town, old wounds begin to heal and love arrives as a beautiful florist aboard a 'Fleurtations' delivery van. But death is closer than Lee Hart thinks. Somewhere among the quiet lanes and sleepy farms something else is waiting. And it is closing in. Don't bring your work home with you, that's what they say. Too late. Sometimes sad, often hilarious and ultimately tragic and deeply moving, A Trick I Learned from Dead Men is a pitch perfect small masterpiece from a writer described by Richard Ford as having 'a moral grasp upon life that is grave, knowing, melancholy, often extremely funny and ultimately optimistic'.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 224
Publisher: Jonathan Cape
Published: 05 Jul 2012

ISBN 10: 0224096435
ISBN 13: 9780224096430
Book Overview: An astonishing new novel on life and death with the most wonderful voice at its heart. From the winner of the Bridport Short Story Prize 2011.

Media Reviews
The most perfectly formed, originally voiced, heartbreakingly real story I've read in years. I laughed, I cried, and mostly I just marvelled at how bloody brilliant this book is. -- Mariella Frostrup Aldridge is a skilled observer and the novel is full of detailed, sometimes strangely beautiful descriptions... Aldridge shows her eye for detail: there is joy to be found in the mundanities of day-to-day life. -- Jo Caird Times Literary Supplement A wonderfully funny, original novel. It is a testament to Aldridge's writing that she manages to create a convincing and expansive universe in such a modest space. In writing about lives and deaths reduced to their smallest elements she has created something joyous and life-affirming. -- Evie Wyld Guardian Life presents Lee with nothing but adversity, yet he never gives up, and Aldridge's punchy style captures his matter-of-fact voice perfectly as he fights on with moving determination. Both tragic yet somehow life-affirming, her novel holds you to the end. -- Francesca Angelini Sunday Times Kitty Aldridge has a gift for original prose... The narrator's tone of voice is pitch-perfect...blackly funny, moving. -- Melissa McClements Independent
Author Bio
Kitty Aldridge was born in the Middle East but grew up in England. A graduate of the Drama Centre, London, she has since worked in theatre, film, and television as an actress and writer. Her first novel, Pop (Cape, 2001), was longlisted for the Orange Prize for Fiction 2002 and shortlisted for the Pendleton May First Novel Award 2002. Her second novel, Cryers Hill, was published by Cape in 2007. Her short story, Arrivederci Les, won the Bridport Short Story Prize 2011 (Bridport Prize Anthology 2011).