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    Nocturne: On the Life and Death of My Brother
    Unavailable
    Nocturne: On the Life and Death of My Brother
    Unavailable
    Nocturne: On the Life and Death of My Brother
    Ebook158 pages2 hours

    Nocturne: On the Life and Death of My Brother

    By Helen Humphreys

    3.5/5

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    Unavailable in your country

    Unavailable in your country

    About this ebook

    Helen Humphreys’ younger brother was gone before she could come to terms with the fact that he was terminally ill. Diagnosed with stage 4B pancreatic cancer at the age of forty-five, he died four months later, leaving behind a grieving family. Martin was an extraordinary pianist who debuted at the Royal Festival Hall in London at the age of twenty, later becoming a piano teacher and senior examiner at the Royal Conservatory of Music. The two siblings, though often living far apart, were bonded on many levels.

    Now Humphreys has written a deeply felt, haunting memoir both about and for her brother. Speaking directly to him, she lays bare their secrets, their disagreements, their early childhood together, their intense though unspoken love for one another. A beautifully articulated testament to the power of human connection, this poetic, candid and intimate book is an offering not only to the memory of Martin but to all those who are living through the loss of family and friends.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 2, 2013
    ISBN9781443415477
    Unavailable
    Nocturne: On the Life and Death of My Brother
    Author

    Helen Humphreys

    HELEN HUMPHREYS is an acclaimed and award-winning author of fiction, non-fiction and poetry. She has won the Rogers Writers’ Trust Fiction Prize, a Lambda Literary Award for Fiction and the Toronto Book Award. She has also been a finalist for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Trillium Book Award and CBC’s Canada Reads. Her most recent work includes the novel Rabbit Foot Bill and the memoir And a Dog Called Fig. The recipient of the Harbourfront Festival Prize for literary excellence, Helen Humphreys lives in Kingston, Ontario. 

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    Reviews for Nocturne

    3.5/5

    3 ratings3 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Anyone who has ever lost someone they loved – and, eventually, if we live long enough, it happens to us all – will find this elegy to the author's late brother to be a heart-achingly accurate portrayal of what it's like to have your best friend die. After reading it, I wanted to send it telepathically to my younger brother, if only to tell him that I had a vision of what life would be like without him... and that I wanted him to know before either one of us departs just how much he means to me. Highly recommended.
    • 1/5
      Did not finish, too depressing
    • 4/5
      A thoughtful and sensitive, yet in no way sentimental, probing of the loss and grief occasioned by a brother's death--and though she tells us about his life and death, the writing is firmly rooted in the living present. I found the use of second-person address most effective.Many lovely passages of writing.