The Descendants by Kaui Hart Hemmings

The Descendants

Kaui Hart Hemmings

Peppered with black humour, this story focuses on the actions of Matt King in the final days up to the switching off of his wife's life support machine. Initially Matt gathers dysfunctional family and friends to say their last goodbyes. But then strangely, on discovering that his wife has a secret lover, Matt sets out on a bizarre quest to track him down to include him in the proceedings. Poignant with a quirky plot and colourful characters.

Extract
I'm about to lower the paper until I hear my daughter say, "The body has natural reactions. When you cut off a chicken's head, its body runs around, but it's still a dead chicken."
I hear Jerry coughing and then Troy saying something about life and lemons and bootstraps.
Parallels
  • The Best A Man Can Get by John O' Farrell
  • Nick Hornby by Anything