Love, Death & Other Scenes

by Nova Weetman

Nova Weetman' s unforgettable memoir reflects on experiences of love and loss from throughout her losing her beloved partner, playwright Aidan Fennessy, during the 2020 Covid lockdown; the death of her mother ten years earlier; her daughter turning eighteen and finishing school; and her own physical ageing. Using these events as a lens, Nova considers how various kinds of losses – and the complicated love they represent – change us and can become the catalysts for letting go.This is a moving, honest account of farewelling a partner of twenty-five years, parenting teenagers through grief, buying property for the first time at the age of fifty, and learning to appreciate spending hours alone with only the household cat for company. Warm and wise – and often joyful – Love, Death & Other Scenes ultimately focuses on the living we do after losses and what we learn from them.

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Biography, Biography Memoir

288 pages, Paperback

Published July 3, 2024

About the author

Nova Weetman wrote short fiction and children’s television before publishing her first YA novel, The Haunting of Lily Frost, in 2014. She lives with her partner, a playwright, and their two children in Brunswick, Australia.

Reviews

[John Gilbert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nova Weetman is a writer, mostly of middle aged books, many of which I have read and enjoyed. This is a memoir of the time leading up to and after her husband's death. She writes of that time and her continuing life as a single mum with two children. This is her story, as she says, sometimes she felt she was writing for herself and it was cathartic for her. This was a library ebook. 3 stars.

I love emotion and how a character feels. pg 28

And that’s the thing with dying. For the person doing the dying, they are ahead of the rest of us. They are waiting desperately for the audience to catch up, for us to hopefully find peace before they go, so they can unburden themselves of the conversation. But if we are too scared to see it, then all they can do is make crude jokes about cutting off their head with an axe. pg 67

[Jaclyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love recommending Nova Weetman’s gorgeous children’s books. Kids love them, parents love them, I love them. This is her first book for adults and it’s a grief memoir. Nova’s husband Aidan died during the 2020 Covid lockdown. It’s a beautiful book about loss, family, love and ageing. The thing I love most about grief memoirs is that although they’re about death, they clarify life. The chapter ‘This or Death’ left me wanting to lift heavy weights and be more in my body. It made me want to inhale giant gulps of air. We rack up loss as we move through this world and books like this are beautiful companions.

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

I had to read this book in short spirts. There were a few tears…

Clear, trusting writing, almost like a letter from a friend, sharing intimacies.

I want to hug Nova Weetman.

Thank you for sharing your story.

May there be many more.

[ALPHAreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

At one point while reading Nova Weetman's memoir, I said out loud to the empty room; "Geez, you're good Nova."

Such was the power and force of certain sentences, ideas, inflections and offerings throughout. "As writers, we are stealers of other peoples memories, bowerbirds of story," she writes at one point - and then puts that ability to collect on full display throughout as she recounts the life she built with her partner, playwright Aidan Fennessy, who battled and then died from prostate cancer in 2020 during Melbourne's numerous lockdowns and waves of Covid.

I know Nova as a colleague, a fellow middle-grade author and someone I greatly admire, and whose books I truly - hand on heart - believe helped me in tapping into my own voice for this age group. I think it's a little odd that I feel like I know-her, *know* her now after reading 'Love, Death & Other Scenes,' though. And especially because I have a tangential understanding of the loss she and her two children experienced in 2020. My uncle died after his third bout of cancer - having beat the other two, it was pancreatic in the end, third time unlucky - and unlike Nova's partner who had the option but didn't use it; my uncle chose Voluntary Assisted Dying and went out on his own terms, at home in December 2020. We were all there. I'm both surprised and not at all by how much reading Nova's perspective of a death like that during Covid - which I watched my aunt and cousin go through, one of the helpers minding children and looking for ways to ease their pain - I needed to reexamine and feel.

But I'm also surprised at how beautifully romantic this book was too, as Nova writes about how she and Aidan first met - how she fell first, and pursued ... how so much of their relationship felt like it needed balancing, especially in their creative exchange; ‘He introduced me to albums I’d never heard, to singers dead before my time, and the way that songs stain your memories giving them meaning they don’t have in silence.'

In this too, I feel weirdly intimate to the story because Nova writes about Aidan's final play he ever wrote - 'The Heartbreak Choir' - finally being staged, but only after his death. His final work he never got to see fully-realised. It's because I know Nova and am a fan of hers, that I was aware through social media what she was going through - and when tickets became available for 'The Heartbreak Choir' debut performance in Melbourne, I snapped them up for both myself, my mum, and my aunt - also knowing that she in particular may find some comfort in both the story, and its background. And she did - we all did. I saw 'The Heartbreak Choir' in May 2022 and loved it! A play my Aunt still talks about, has triggered her love of theatre to the point that she and my mum will now spontaneously ask me to check out what's on and what's coming up, book something for us all.

'Love, Death & Other Scenes' feels like another chapter to that play, in a way. How apt, that Nova muses towards the end of her memoir; ‘And it is in words that I can find him,' and it's in both her words and his that I feel something being unlocked, and another story I want to share with my family. That I want to press this book into their hands and say; 'It's us, a little bit.' We're not so alone, I think.

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

I decided to pick up this book as my daughter loved Nova Weetman's book Sick Bay so I knew of the author, but didn't realise her partner had died of cancer. Having a rare, non-curable cancer myself, this one was a little close to home. That said, I was really engaged with Nova's memoir, focussing on losing her partner to cancer during the COVID pandemic, and her and her children's life afterwards. The story is very emotional, heartbreaking and moving. I appreciated the detail and honesty Nova went into about what every day life was like for them during the time Adrian was dying. Well worth the read.

#BRPreview @betterreadingau

[Sharah McConville · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nova Weetman’s ‘Love, Death & Other Scenes’ is such a heartfelt memoir. I have enjoyed several of her YA novels and did not know that she had lost her partner of twenty-six years, to cancer. This beautiful reflection on Nova’s life with her family really drew me in. The layout of the book is made to represent the script of a play, I thought this was a great tribute to her late partner, playwright Aidan Fennessy. Thanks to Better Reading for my preview copy.

[Judith · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’m not quite sure how to describe my responses to this beautiful book. To say it made me weep several times is true, but inadequate. I cry at the drop of a hat, but these were earned tears. Nova’s voice rings through these pages with such raw clarity, and an utter lack of self-pity or mawkish sentimentality, despite her enormous, unthinkable loss.

Although the loss of my partner was to divorce, not death, and I never had children, the rhythms and emotions of loss and post-loss ring so true. I thought of my sister often while reading. She was the main carer for our parents in their final years, and she and I (and our other siblings) spoke often about the huge space that would be left in her life after Mum died and her caring duties ended. The relief which Nova describes after the death of both her mother and her partner — both of whom died from cancer after protracted suffering, as did out mother — was so familiar and described with such plain honesty as to be both kind of shocking and completely reassuring.

There’s both a weight and lightness to this book: the weight comes both from the topic of grief and loss and rebuilding a life, as well as from the enormous effort and emotional energy you can feel in every word that it cost Nova to write.

The lightness comes from the love.

[Ali · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the best memoirs of illness, death and grief that I’ve read.

I am an allied health professional working in palliative care and will be recommending this book to colleagues and to the families that I support. It gives an excellent insight into the realities of caring for a loved one with a life-limiting condition in Australia today. Thank you for your generosity in sharing your experience with us Nova.

I listened to the audiobook version read by the author which I found an excellent way to read the book.

Five stars.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every time we experience grief, it is different. It's why I keep reading grief memoirs - they always provide a new perspective. Love, Death and Other Scenes by Nova Weetman offers extraordinary insight into many aspects of grief.

Weetman's memoir opens with the memorial of her husband, playwright and director Aidan Fennessy.*

It is like being at a party where the guest has forgotten to arrive. Everyone is waiting for you. And you are nowhere and everywhere. In all the conversations. In all the memories. But gone too.

She then rewinds, reflecting on their relationship, his diagnosis with cancer, her time caring for him (at home, during COVID lockdowns), his death, and her bereavement.

Weetman explores the differences in the grief experience - reflecting on how she grieved for her mother (who was also in palliative care) as compared to Aidan, and how her children experienced bereavement quite differently from her. Of course, from a textbook point-of-view, none of this is surprising but for Weetman, who was in it, it was. And this is grief at work.

The process of dying isn't for the patient, it's for those caring for them. I wasn't ready for Mum to die. I needed it to take time. Over those weeks, I needed to process how I was going to feel... It was only after watching her suffer that I was fully ready for her to go.... It shocked me to realise how willing I was to compromise her quality of life just so she could stick around for a bit longer.

It is in discussing her children and their loss, that Weetman delves into the significance of memories.The fallibility of memory wobbles her - '...there is no one truth in memory - just an attempt at such...'

She veers from her own narrative to draw on the work of various neuroscientists, to explain how memories are retrieved, and in recalling something, how it can become distorted or altered. There is growing evidence to suggest that memories are not 'replayed' but rather repeatedly reconstructed thoughts. Within the context of grief, '...the idea that we can inflate our memories, alter them, distort them or even create false ones, is overwhelming...'

I like imagining that what I remember about Aidan is real and true. I want to hold on to those memories, return to them at will and argue for their existence. But I also understand that my version of events is not the only one and that if I asked my children about their memories... theirs would be different from mine.

And goes on to say -

Nowhere are memories more desperately hunted for than when someone dies. A time when grief makes even the smallest thought often impossible and when we are bumbling through guilt and hurt and longing. Surely during such heightened emotion, memories have no chance at being accurate?

This memoir is beautifully written. It will be added to the small collection of grief memoirs that I can wholeheartedly recommend to others - for solace; because some part will resonate; for its truths.

4.5/5

He introduced the kids to the delight of stopping off on a road trip for a beef pie and sauce at a country bakery... I find myself stopping so the kids can buy their pies and remember their dad. We hunt Aidan out where we can, but find him in different ways.

*Fennessy wrote one of the best plays I have seen - The Architect - performed by Melbourne Theatre Company in 2018 (he also wrote the glorious Heartbreak Choir and the riveting What Rhymes with Cars and Girls ). Weetman describes The Architect perfectly - It is a heady play, requiring ethical attention, with harrowing drama buried in pitch-perfect comedy. The parallels between Fennessy's diagnosis and death, and The Architect are of course, notable.

[Jessica (bibliobliss.au)]

Nova Weetman is an acclaimed young adult and children’s author. LOVE, DEATH & OTHER SCENES is a moving memoir about the loss of her partner, playwright Aidan Fennessy, to cancer during Melbourne’s pandemic lockdowns.

Grief memoirs have been the most moving and intimate books I’ve read the last few years. The sub-genre isn’t for everyone, but I’ve found the books in this category to be heartbreaking, tender reads that offer beautiful insights into love, life and loss.

In LOVE, DEATH & OTHER SCENES, Nova Weetman writes as a woman mourning her great love and life partner, a mother supporting her children through grief, a Melbournian caught up in the uncertainty of lockdown and separated from community, and a woman in mid-life.

It all makes for an engaging and very personal memoir. Tender, raw and observant, Nova’s perspectives on love, family and life are honest and heartfelt.

If you are a reader that enjoys this type of memoir, I highly recommend LOVE, DEATH & OTHER SCENES. Beautifully written and easily read. Nova’s story will stay with you.

[Ellen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I fell into this gently, as the story gradually unfurled with feelings tucked into its folds.

[Stefana Brunetto · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a beautiful book. I was laughing and crying all the way through.

Thank you, Nova, for sharing so much of yourself in these pages.

[Anna Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A beautiful exploration of life, love and death.

[Cass Moriarty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Acclaimed young adult and children’s author Nova Weetman’s first foray into other writing is an extraordinary, wise and insightful adult debut, a memoir titled Love, Death and Other Scenes (UQP 2024), which mostly encapsulates the time she spent nursing her partner at home as he died from cancer during the worst of the Covid pandemic lockdown. This tender, warm and intimate account is interspersed with other life-changing periods: the death of her mother years earlier; the maturation of her adolescent children; confronting her own aging. While the subject matter is deep and sometimes uncomfortable, it is presented with Weetman’s trademark wit and dark sense of humour, as she brings to the page the most joyous and miraculous moments that add sparkle to her life as she lurches from one crisis point to the next.

I read this book in the quiet hours of hospital, sitting beside my dying daughter (31, also cancer). I believe that the right book comes to you at the right time, and my decision to read this book at this time, my conscious choice, made me hyper aware of the similarities and differences in our situations. Reading this book for me was confronting, punishing and comforting. By confronting, I mean that certain scenes were triggering as they were so familiar to what our own family was going through, and by punishing I mean it felt almost like a kind of self-flagellation to read about somebody else’s pain, grief and loss while I endured my own. But the important thing is that it was also comforting – in Weetman’s words, I heard my own voice. In her actions, I saw myself. In her self-doubt and guilt, her regret and bitter-sweet joy, her exhaustion, her single-mindedness, her determination, her frustration, her anger, her care and her deep, deep love, I recognised pieces of myself at that very same time. It was a strange and surreal experience.

I wondered which would end first … would I finish the book? Or would my daughter take her last breath? It was a synchronicity I can barely explain, but it affected me in a way I will never forget.

Of course, most readers will not have this intense experience, but for any reader this book offers joy, love and permission to feel all the feelings.

Weetman’s partner, acclaimed playwright Aiden Fennessy, was diagnosed with metastatic cancer suddenly, and his deterioration and death was ruthlessly quick. Weetman made the decision to nurse him at home, because the Covid rules at the time meant that if he went to hospital, their two children would not be allowed to visit. As some readers will know, nursing someone at home is a mammoth task. There is a hospital bed, various mobility aids, drugs, drugs and more drugs. A relentless burden of care which only increases in intensity as the patient becomes sicker and in more need of personal care and medicinal pain relief. Weetman certainly doesn’t refer to her experience as a burden, but it is clear in her depiction of that time that no other word really describes her Sisyphean task; a Burden of Love, perhaps.

In homage to her late partner, the book is divided into a three-act structure, the first Love, the second Death and the third Other Scenes. Each of these is a series of small chapters or vignettes, written very much as if Weetman is speaking directly, sometimes to her partner and sometimes to the reader. The effect is a warm and intimate memoir that takes us directly into her world and her day-to-day routine. Her tone is matter of fact and raw, honest and visceral. She doesn’t shy away from difficult or embarrassing memories, paint over her youthful mistakes, or avoid talking about her feelings, which were as often angry and hurt as they were loving and mournful. This book feels very real, rich with emotion and detail. Her sense of observation is acute. Despite despair, she demonstrates the same curiosity with the world that marks her writing for younger readers. Her words are profound, wise, insightful, perceptive and meaningful. As a reader, you feel her loneliness, you grieve with her, you rant and rave with her, you sense her courage and devotion, you applaud her tenacity, you cry with her and laugh with her and want to be a part of her messy, tangled family.

The book travels back and forth in time as the author depicts her life not in a chronological way, but in snippets of time, particular events and notable incidents. But towards the end of the book, she does talk about the fear and excitement of buying property for the first time at 50 after being a renter all her life, the anxieties and hopes of her children becoming adults and being let loose into the world, and the experience of loneliness as she shares her life and her house with only her cat for company. The terrible restrictions of Covid (particularly throughout the Melbourne lockdowns) suffuse most of the book with a physical isolation to which many will relate and remember with distress or ambiguity or pain.

She writes about what she did for herself during this time – swimming, listening to music, watching films – and how she tried to practise self-care. And she talks about the varied responses of others, from well-meaning friends and family to the kindness (or sometimes inane stupidity or ignorance) from random strangers. One critic referred to her writing as similar to that of Helen Garner, and it is true that her very particular observations and her ability to write of small but important details in an engaging and interesting way is very much Garneresque. From teenage diaries to funerals, from first dates and unwise (but very fun) adolescent behaviour to a sea of lasagnes and cups of tea, from sex to secondhand belongings, from jealousy to passion, from IV drips to a crying partner … Weetman describes every aspect with a focussed lens and spare, taut prose that wastes not a word.

It is Mother’s Day today and my daughter clings to life. Other than hospital, my life lately has consisted only of reading when I’m able, when the chance arises. I write reviews, but I don’t post them, putting them aside for ‘afterwards’, for when I feel ready to engage with the online world of books and writers and reviewing. And so this one, too, will sit in my computer, waiting for the right time to be revealed. Against all odds, my daughter outlived this story. For now, her own story continues.

(Postscript: Kiara Maire Moriarty died on 23 May, 2024. Beloved mother, wife, daughter, sister, friend. Into the sunshine.)

[Kelly Nolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Written by the talented Australian author Nova Weetman, Love, Death and Other Scenes is the story of Nova’s loss of her partner Aidan Hennessy.  Aidan died during the Covid lockdowns, which adds another layer of grief, as family and friends could not be around to support them.

This story is interwoven with their love story, so we see the journey of Nova and Aidan together.  We get to know them as individuals and as a couple.  As a reader, you feel like you know them personally, which is an acknowledgement of Nova’s talent as a writer. 

This book is beautifully written on a very delicate topic, but Nova balances both the sadness and the joy. 

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extraordinarily moving memoir/meditation by a wise and treasured friend that centres on the devastating loss of her partner, acclaimed playwright Aidan Fennessy, during the COVID lockdowns in Melbourne.

At page 67 (on losing her mother): "[Aidan] believed you stored grief in your body and it returned when the environment was right.

Then he told me, 'I'm done with death.'

At the time it stung that he was so cavalier with my loss. But now that he's gone too and my grief has leaked out onto everything, I understand what he meant. There's a limit to how much you can feel. And to how many treasured people you can farewell without being changed.

Aidan might have been done with death but, of course, death is never done with anyone."

At page 93: "Until Aidan was diagnosed, we were joined in our plans for the future. We believed we would watch our children grow, celebrate their independence when they became adults, enjoy our time as a couple again, travel, work, argue, live. Suddenly I was the only one with a future. We were now on different clocks.

Aidan and I had always looked after each other .... But a terminal cancer diagnosis changed all that.

It's not just that you know the person will die sooner than you'd always imagined, it's that it becomes very hard to think about anything else because it is now framed through a different lens, one that weighs heavily. You can't just go on a holiday; you have to make memories. You can't just start writing a new play because you probably won't be here to finish it. You can't think about your children turning eighteen because you will be long gone.

Grief starts before the person you love dies. It starts the moment they are told the cancer will kill them."

[Annette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nova Weetman's memoir, Love, Death & Other Scenes,is a very moving story of loss and grief. As if losing your partner of twenty-five years isn't traumatic enough, Nova had to deal with this during Covid lockdown while parenting her two children. It is a tale of determination, love and courage. This memoir doesn't hold back from the truth, being very honest about their life coming to terms with Aidan's diagnosis and his decline over time. Just how this affected each of the family is beautifully portrayed. Although it is very sad, Nova has managed to spell out that life continues, acknowledging that her children meant she had to get on with life despite being desperately grieving her loved partner.
Despite the themes of loss and grief, Nova has written an engaging story of hope and survival. She is an excellent writer.
Thanks to Better Reading and UQP for my copy.

[Kim Cahill · Rating 4 out of 5]

A brutally honest account of one family's experience of a loved one's impending death during COVID lock downs in Melbourne.
There are no rose coloured glasses worn by Nova Weetman as she navigates life with her two children and her partner Aidan who has been given a cancer diagnosis. From the outset, Nova describes bluntly the effects this terminal illness has on everyone in her family. While addressing this life changing event, much of Aidan's treatment occurs during the many COVID lock downs endured by the residents of Melbourne. The kids are schooling remotely from home and travel restrictions along with visitor restrictions add to the loneliness of this family's hardship.
Nova talks about her life before, during and after the death of Aidan. She is candid and raw and I truly appreciated her take on the world during such a difficult time. Thank you Nova for sharing and giving the reader an intimate insight into living with death.

[Anne Parrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to Better Reading and University of Queensland Press for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Love, Death & Other Scenes, written by Nova Weetman, is a memoir penned after she lost her partner to cancer at the height of the Covid Lockdowns in Melbourne in 2020.

This is Neva's story of grief, how it changes her, and how her life continues after the loss of Aidan.

I was pleasantly surprised by this book, despite its subject of Grief.
There are many parts which I could relate to, and empathise with the author.
The highs and lows of grief which are individual, random moments of memories, the fact that "Death isn't funny but sometimes you need to be".

A beautifully written book by Ms Weetman.

[Sallie Clark · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am always blown away by the generosity of a writer sharing their life with us. This wonderful heartbreaking memoir is no exception. Nova Weetman is one of my favourite authors (fiction for 12 year olds is my favourite genre) so I treated myself to this book as soon as it was released.
Nova writes about her love of her partner Aidan Fennessy, his illness and death. She writes honestly about her conflicting emotions around caring for him in his illness. Her writing is engaging and I finished this book in record time. I am usually a slow reader.
After reading Heather Rose’s memoir last year and also Ruth Wilson’s ‘The Jane Austen Remedy’ around the same time, I realise that this is a genre I need to focus on more. Any suggestions?

[Caroline Poole · Rating 4 out of 5]

This memoir is very raw, real and heart wrenching. It is a beautiful love story, a heartwarming family story, and a honest very personal account of losing the love of your life. The writing is so conversational that you sometimes feel you are sitting with the writer, Nova, listening to her story. The experiences of the writer of grief and loss and the full spectrum of how that affected her and her family and friends is a very emotional roller coaster for the reader. I think readers will have many complex reactions to this memoir depending on their own experiences of love, death and other scenes. My warm regards to the author, Nova and her family for this courageous telling of their story.

[SS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nova Weetman draws us into her love and life that was shared with her partner, Aidan, who died of prostrate cancer during the Covid pandemic. Nova's skills as a writer means she has a strength in capturing her love for Aidan and the life they shared before cancer, raising children and the stark contrast of the life they share once Aidan is diagnosed and eventually dies from cancer.

Grief, happiness, life, love, place and nuclear family are all captured in this book. Whilst the book covers many challenging areas, it is soft, approachable and definitely worth reading.

Nova and Aidan live in Melbourne, Australia, so very much an experience specific to this culture and location.

[Anita · Rating 5 out of 5]

A sad but good story of Aidan ,and Nova and her two children and Bernie the cat

It a story of love, passion , and what life gives you and trying to work it out when we have someone

in our lives and we lose them the process we all may go through Grief pain anger relief

the journey the people we may have and support It a sad story some happy points and a family

coming together with there pet cat Bernie

A very real story trying to survive and learning to live and doing new things for Nova and children

thanks better Reading for the book

[Bec · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't normally rate or review biographies/memoirs but this book was so beautifully written I felt I had to. Even though it's dealing with some pretty heavy things (the title gives it away) it is done with such openness and honesty, Nova's writing talent shines through. We have a lot of Nova's YA books in our school library and after reading this book it makes me want to read them more.
(Even though it dealt with deep issues it was an "easy" read - just my lunchtime book)

[Hannah Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

My father bought me this signed copy from Adelaide writers week with the inscription “farewelling Margie” to better understand our grief of losing our wife and mother slowly to early onset Alzheimer’s disease. I found it a challenging read as reading about death sickness and grief can be uncomfortable , but an important one about love and the messiness that can be watching someone you love die and the complicated feelings associated with it. A beautiful honest book thank you

[Leigh Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book tells the story of Aiden Fennessy, his artistic and family life and the impact his cancer diagnosis and subsequent death had on his family. I was impressed by Nova's honest writing style which included a lot of information on additional reading material that would no doubt be invaluable for someone navigating life in a similar situation. Thanks Better Reads

[Di · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very moving memoir about the death of her partner and father of her two teenage children during the COVID lockdowns in Melbourne. It is very real, evoking both the claustrophobia of the lockdowns and the tender and painful anguish of a family living through the death and dying of the person that is its heart.

[Clare Rhoden · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lovely writing, and some excellent reflections on death, dying, and grief. I found the digressive structure difficult to navigate - we keep jumping backwards and forwards in time - so I had to treat it like a conversation with a bereaved person instead of a polished book.
There are some good insights in here for those struggling with the terminal illness of a loved one.

[Hew Parham · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the midst of a struggle with three dear friends struggling with cancer, I found this book an immense comfort. I think the beauty is in the little moments, the little reflections and idiosyncracies of our lives and our tastes that is so heart breakingly represented here. Thank you Nova for your honesty.

[Rene · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love. Death & Other Scenes had me crying for Nova and her children's loss and smiling at her lifestyle and strength many times. Raw & Real a deeply touching insight into Nova's life & who she is..... a courageous women moving into the next scene in life, who you'd love to be friends with.