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    The Language of Dying
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    The Language of Dying
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    The Language of Dying
    Audiobook3 hours

    The Language of Dying

    Written by Sarah Pinborough

    Narrated by Gabrielle Glaister

    3.5/5

    ()

    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this audiobook

    A woman sits beside her father's bed as the night ticks away the final hours of his life. As she watches over him, she relives the past week and the events that have brought the family together. Sitting through her lonely vigil, she remembers what she saw all those years ago, the thing they found her screaming for. And as she peers through the window, she finds herself hoping it will come again.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherW. F. Howes Ltd
    Release dateDec 5, 2013
    ISBN9781471249723
    Unavailable
    The Language of Dying
    Author

    Sarah Pinborough

    Sunday Times No.1 bestseller Sarah Pinborough is a critically acclaimed, award-winning, adult and YA author. She is also a screenwriter who has written for the BBC and has several original television projects in development.

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    Reviews for The Language of Dying

    3.5/5

    48 ratings8 reviews

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    • 4/5
      Beautifully written book, as the narrator- spending her last weeks with her dying father- is joined by her four siblings. All are damaged, each in their own way. The nameless narrator juxtaposes childhood recollections with the morphine, the drifting consciousness, the change of her much-loved parent...who was - and is- so much more than the crumbling shell he now inhabits.There is, too, a magical side to the story, as the narrator recalls seeing some mythical, horse-like horned beast out in the meadow.....a scary yet benevolent creature, offering the possibility of escape.Very believable portrait of dying.
    • 4/5
      5 siblings are coming home to spend the final moments with their father when he is dying. The unnamed narrator is the middle child who stayed home to care for his father after his diagnosis with cancer. When she informs her siblings that their father has mere days left, they finally come back home when they can no longer postpone it. They all have their own ways coping and it causes drifts between them.The story bounces between past and present while we follow narrator’s relationship with her father and her siblings. We learn how the family slowly drifted apart after their mother left them.I didn’t get the magical aspects of the story. When she was a child she saw something. And she sees it again as an adult. Was it real or was she just imagining it? Was it supposed to have some bigger meaning? I don’t get it.Despite that, I really liked this. It’s short book, more like a novella, and while sad I had to know what happens next.
    • 5/5
      "This is just the end. It isn't the everything of you. And it's the everything we'll remember when the memory of this fades."

      In Sarah Pinborough's The Language of Dying a woman cares for her father as his cancer devours him during the last hours of his life. She reflects on how her family has never been quite 'right,' quite normal - and though she has been surrounded by her siblings during the past week of grief, irony, anger, and pain-tinged laughter that engulfs moments like bright flaring flame, the weight of her father's passing and his wishes rest firmly on her shoulders. She has been the caretaker, the witness to his quietus - his last lasts. As her father fades in a morphine sleep, she looks at the dysfunction of their family and examines her role as 'the drifter' of the clan. The drifter that was pulled home, that watches at the window for a dark Something that has always come during the storms of her life. Her father is ending, her family ties crumbling, as she can taste the acridity of grief on her tongue, so she can taste Its arrival.

      "Because it's one of those nights, isn't it Dad? A special terrible night. A full night. And that's always when it comes. If it comes at all."

      Pinborough's novella is sharply poignant, grim, and beautifully written. It is an immensely moving look at the nature of a family and the exigencies of endings. As Neil Gaiman writes, "a beautiful story, honestly told."

      I received a copy of The Language of Dying as an ARC through NetGalley. I'd like to thank NetGalley, Jo Fletcher Books, and Sarah Pinborough for the opportunity to read and review this book.
    • 3/5
      The Language of Dying was not what I expected of Sarah Pinborough, whom I consider to be primarily a horror/dark fantasy author. While there is a very slight supernatural element, The Language of Dying is essentially a one-sided conversation between the narrator and her dying father, whose care she has assumed without any real assistance from her sister and three brothers. She recounts various incidents from their shared history, and we witness her oh-so-polite interactions with those siblings as they return to say their brief goodbyes to the man who raised them after their mother abandoned the family.Pinborough has dedicated her book to "Nick, a good friend, much missed" and describes it in her acknowledgements as "this little book, which means so much to me," leading me to wonder whether it was written as an outlet for her grief over her friend's death. There is no denying the sincerity and depth of feeling, the elegiac tone, portrayed here, and readers looking for such a book will appreciate The Language of Dying. Don't expect much, though, from "the thing she saw out in the fields all those years ago . . . the thing that they found her screaming for outside in the mud"; it has only a walk-on part.I received a free copy of The Language of Dying from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      ‘There is a language to dying. It creeps like a shadow alongside the passing years and the taste of it hides in the corners of our mouths. It finds us whether we are sick or healthy. It is a secret hushed thing that lives in the whisper of the nurses’ skirts as they rustle up and down our stairs. They’ve taught me to face the language one syllable at a time, slowing creating an unwilling meaning.’The Language of Dying is a multi-genre novella which tells the story of a dying father and his five children that come together to be with him in his final moments. Blending a contemporary tale of family life with aspects of magical realism and horror, Sarah Pinborough focuses on an unnamed narrator, the middle child of five who has been the one to remain home and care for her father once he realized that cancer was ravaging his body. It’s not until she receives word that her father has mere days to live do her siblings finally return to pay their respects, leaving it up to her to handle things until they can no longer say no. Her siblings have always found her to be something of an odd duck, always has her head in the clouds, but not only is she constantly haunted by a creature she once saw out her bedroom window but of the darkened past that she keeps hidden while is continues to consume her.‘A black horn grows twisted from between its eye, a thick, deformed, calloused thing, a tree root erupting from the earthy ground of its forehead, the matt texture oppositional to the sweaty shine on its dark hide. I stare at it and our souls meet. It is power and anger and beauty and nature rolled into something other-worldly, waging a war with the night on its four thick hooves.’The magical realism/horror aspects of this novel were initially curious yet ultimately left me perplexed. The novella mainly centers around the narrators relationship with her father and her siblings as well as her own tragically distressing story that has changed her as a person. Bouncing between past and present tense, the story is a nostalgic one, recalling past times with both fondness and animosity. The inclusion of the fantasy aspect, oddly, never seemed out of place in this contemporary story yet felt mostly like a metaphor that I never fully understood. The Language of Dying is an outlandish yet beautifully written story that effectively illustrates the power of grief and the indelible mark it leaves on us.‘Sometimes there are just too many words filling up space and not enough emptiness left for thinking. I keep a little emptiness inside for when I need it.’
    • 4/5
      A novella about a man and his daughter, the daughter who has watched over him as lay dying. The man who raised his family of dive after his wife and their mother left him. This daughter is the middle one, and as she watches and speaks to him we learn her hackstory, the events in her life that made her return to, this house. Although bee three brothers and her older sister come home to say goodbye they all leave again and it is only her, the father and whatever is waiting for her.A wonderfully written book, albeit grim about a family who has suffered its fair share of trials. A grim subject to say the least and yet one we will all face at one times or another in our lives. The author uses magical realism to great effect and I was a bit surprised by the ending. A very different but good story.ARC from Netgalley.
    • 5/5
      A beautiful little novel about living through the last few days of a dying parent.The "almost-forty" narrator, the middle of five dysfunctional children, lives in the family home she purchased from her father and in which she now nurses him. As her siblings arrive to say their goodbyes, she addresses her thoughts to her father, ruminating about their family life and the directions each child has taken: the eldest, who tries his hand at one thing after another, never succeeding for long; the older sister, full of glow but never quite finding what she wants; and the youngest brothers, twins, one a schizophrenic and the other an addict. In the end, though, the narrator is left alone once again with her father, facing her own demons. Readers who have not lived through the lingering death of someone close to them will find the writing lovely, but for those who have experienced this life-changing event there will be a frisson of recognition: the sorrow, the guilt, the moments of madness, and the love shared by those willing to be present to witness this final solitary struggle and the person they will miss so terribly.
    • 4/5
      A harrowingly beautiful read about the death of a loved one.A young woman sits and watches as her father lives out the last few hours of his life. As she watches her father slip away, she is left alone with her thoughts and memories of the past, as they all come flooding back to her.“I think about that lost dignity you must be feeling and I want to tell you it doesn't matter. Not in the great scheme of things. This is just the end. It isn't the everything of you. And it’s the everything we’ll remember when the memory of this fades.” This book may be a quick read in terms of page numbers, but in terms of plot it is the opposite. I am a big fan of Sarah Pinborough, I love her Fairytale Kingdom series so when I heard about this I immediately picked it up, thinking it might be something similar. I could not have been more wrong. This isn't really a fantasy book. It is centred on the harsh realities of death. The young woman tells her story as if she is addressing her dying father, saying all the things she cannot say out loud. She deals with watching him decline, with caring for him, with having to gather her family for his last days.It is an incredibly emotional and powerful book. Something that really struck me about is that although it’s only 150 odd pages, Pinborough manages to pack a whole lot in, there is an intense about of characterisation, and a lot goes on in such a short number of paces. It doesn't feel crammed in though, it flows well and altogether makes up a really special story. It has won awards for best novella, and as you can see it has one of the most beautiful book covers I have ever seen. I wish all covers were as beautiful as this one.The book is written in a very realistic way, all the characters are written in very clear and distinct ways – all the siblings are very vivid and real. If you have ever experienced death of a loved one, this is an extremely important novel to read. I also think if you've never read any of Sarah Pinborough’s writing before, this is an excellent first choice. It’s hard hitting, but it will blow you away.