Death Party

From “one of the most unique voices in American literature,” (Yiyun Li) comes a funny, bittersweet novel about boundless love in a world of diminishing returns—and the woman determined to face the truth but grab every silver lining too

At sixty-three and suffering from late-stage multiple sclerosis, Edie is completely reliant on aides to perform the most basic functions of her daily existence. A compulsive truth teller, cantankerous, frankly sexual, persnickety, and unbound, Edie is also overbrimming with love for the most important people in her life: her chosen family.

Now, as she has long said she would, she has decided to end it all. But first she wants to gather her far-flung loved ones for one last epic party—a death party. But when her estranged brother Larry gets wind of her plans, he threatens to throw a wrench in the works, enraging Edie, who has always lived (and now intends to die) on her own terms. Into this mess walks Jo, Edie’s friend and former aide, who is secretly pregnant and dreading Edie’s disapproval around bringing a new life into a broken world. With the date of the party now set, maybe Jo doesn’t even need to reveal this secret to her beloved but overbearing friend. But is Edie even in earnest about all of this? Or is this all a desperate ploy on Edie’s part to remain relevant to her increasingly distant friends?

In the crispness of its prose, the finely observed spaces between its characters, and its huge generosity of spirit, Death Party is a brilliant story that sees a caretaking community wrestling with the end of a beautifully, wildly, and lovingly lived life, by a National Book Award finalist.