Synopses & Reviews
A freshly insightful, hopeful, and dramatic novel full of heart and lifeatold from the perspective of a household advice columnist, wife, and mother who is determined to finish a lifetimeas worth of tasks even though she doesnat have a lifetime left to live.
T he Household Guide to Dying is a moving, witty, and uplifting novel about Delia, who writes an acerbic and wildly popular household advice column. When Delia realizes that she is losing her long battle with cancer, she decides to organize her remaining monthsaand her husband and childrenas future lives without herathe same way she has always ordered their household. Unlike the many faithful readers of her advice columnapeople who are rendered lost and confused when faced with dirty shirt collarsaDelia knows just what to do. She will leave a list for her daughteras future wedding; fill the freezer with homemade sausages, stews, and sauces; and even (maddeningly) offer her husband suggestions for a new wife. Sheall compile a lifetimeas worth of advice for her children, and sheall even write the ultimate aHousehold Guide to Dyinga for her fans. There is one item on her list, however, that proves too much even for aDear Delia, a and it is the single greatest task she had set for herself. Yet just as Delia is coming to terms with this, an unexpected visitor helps her believe in her lifeas worth in a way that no list ever could.
Imbued with Deliaas love for food, Jane Austen, clucking hens, and fragrant gardens, and interspersed with her secrets to making a pot of tea, removing wine stains from lace, and the ingredients to the perfect wedding cake, this is a gorgeously crafted novel that captures the readeraheart and mindaand expands our understanding of a meaningful life.
Review
Synopsis
Now that popular household advice columnist Delia Bennet is dying from cancer, she's compiled the ultimate to-do list: plan her daughter's future wedding, fill the freezer with her family's favorite meals- perhaps even do some matchmaking for her husband.
But just as Delia comes to terms with the impossibility of ever tying every loose thread together in her too-short time, an unexpected visitor helps her believe in her life's worth in a way no list ever could...
About the Author
Debra Adelaide has worked as an editor, book reviewer, and researcher, and she is now a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Technology in Sydney, Australia. This is her first book to be published in the United States.