Description

An Irish Times Book of the Year 2023

‘An extraordinary achievement’ Mary Gaitskill

‘In the hands of a maestro, less can be so much more’ Independent

Cheri has been living with cancer for many years. Now, she is dying. As she navigates the final weeks of her life, and takes charge of the manner of her death, she is flooded with childhood memories, and returns to the present with a renewed appreciation for the brilliance of life around her: the autumn has never been so beautiful, her daughters never as radiant. Brave, incredibly strong and deeply loved, Cheri makes one last nerve-wracking journey across the country with her girls and her friends, knowing relief waits welcoming as a frozen lake on the other side.

A masterpiece of fiction and memory, Cheri is a heart-breaking but glorious celebration of all the moments of beauty and pain that make an individual life, right up until its very last moments.

Publisher Review

Beard's wry voice and her clear-eyed compassion make her the best sort of company -- Jonathan Franzen * Guardian * Profoundly sad, poignant, and filled with the flabbergasting abundance of life ... an extraordinary achievement -- Mary Gaitskill Beard honours the beautiful, the sacred, and the comic in life, and for life's inescapable cruelites and woes she offers the wisdom of a sage -- Sigrid Nunez Jo Ann Beard is a formidable talent. Her writing is darkly moving, full of audacious narrative surprises, and, at times, unexpectedly - almost unbearably - suspenseful -- Geoff Dyer A rare talent, and a magnificent writer ... She is extraordinary -- Francesca Segal, author of Mother Ship