The Household Guide to Dying

Paperback | 1 April 2009 | Edition Number 1

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On the face of it, Delia's got it all – good marriage, two great kids, dream job writing witty, practical house and garden books. But when she's diagnosed with terminal cancer, she's forced to view her life in an entirely new light. There are things she must do, there are wrongs to be put right, and there are mysteries from the past that demand resolution.

But there is just so little time.

Summoning all her strength, she returns to the tiny country town where she fled pregnant and unmarried 14 years before and comes to terms with a loss no mother should ever have to endure. She finishes writing her ultimate how-to book. And she tries, as best she can, to prepare herself and her family for the inevitable...

Moving, witty and wise, Debra Adelaide's brilliant new novel is destined to become a classic of contemporary Australian fiction.

About the Author

Debra Adelaide has worked as a university lecturer and researcher, and is now a writer, freelance editor, and occasional book reviewer. She is the author of the bestselling parenting anthologies Motherlove , Motherlove II and Cutting The Cord ; the novels The Hotel Albatross and Serpent Dust ; and the short story anthology, Acts of Dog . She has been a regular panellist at literary festivals and judge of literary awards, including the Miles Franklin Award, the Vogel Award, the Patrick White Award and the Nita B Kibble Award for Women Writers.

Industry Reviews

Dry meditations on preparing for death and a trip down memory lane preoccupy the cancer-stricken heroine of a reflective, overburdened but not too sentimental story.A mother with a past is about to be snatched away too soon from her devoted husband and female children and needs to leave matters in order, in Australian novelist Adelaide's latest (The Hotel Albatross, 1995, etc.). The central character, Delia, doesn't have much time left and is obsessing about preparing for her young daughters' weddings, while needing to tie up loose ends regarding her own early life and also writing The Household Guide to Dying, the final volume in the Household Guides series related to her domestic-advice column. These jostling strands make for a choppy, sometimes chronologically confusing narrative, further fragmented by flashbacks and glimpses of Delia's professional correspondence. Adelaide's discursive style adds an additional gossipy dimension. However, the story of Delia's teenage pregnancy emerges through the thicket - how her boyfriend abandoned her; how she lived in a caravan, in a small town, as a single parent; how she coped when tragedy struck. Because of her illness, Delia has trouble finishing Household Guide to Dying, but Adelaide succeeds in wrapping things up gracefully.Despite the cluttered scenario and downbeat subject matter, the author's witty, perky tone and insight prevail. (Kirkus Reviews)

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