The Body in the Library

Cancer, tumour, cancer.

The words fizzle and dissolve into nothing like aspirin in water.

In this startling and deeply moving memoir from one of the great chroniclers of British working-class life, Graham Caveney charts a year of disease from diagnosis to past ‘original sell-by-date’. Shot through with Northerness, tenderness, and Caveney’s trademark humour, The Body in the Library reflects on an unfinished lifetime filled with books and with love. What’s it like to realise that the books on your shelf will remain unread? That the book you are writing will be your last – that you have become your own deadline? 

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Graham’s writing is always thoughtful and witty, erudite and hugely entertaining. I so enjoyed this touching and insightful book.

David Nicholls

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I don’t have to urge you to read The Body in the Library. All I will say is that it is, in my for-what-it’s-worth opinion, a small (in fact not so small) masterpiece. A book that will take hold of your heart and never let go.

Jonathan Coe

*

The Body in the Library is as compelling as it is unnerving.

Michael Bracewell

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