Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead

By Barbara Comyns,

Book cover of Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead

Book description

“Comyns’ novel is deranged in ways that shouldn’t be disclosed.” —Ben Marcus

This is the story of the Willoweed family and the English village in which they live. It begins mid-flood, ducks swimming in the drawing-room windows, “quacking their approval” as they sail around the room. “What about my rose…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Just like life, this supple narrative about a village in Warwickshire, England is full of beauty, gruesomeness, and sudden death. Without manifest plot points as such, the narrative seems to float past the range of eccentric townspeople after a destructive flood and later an epidemic of poisonings. Comically, none of the characters seem to take that death seriously. Comyns’ tender gift for describing humans in intimate communion with nature will make you long for flowers, forests, and abounding nature-amid-towns which we no longer experience in today’s world. This writer is neither optimistic nor pessimistic about humanity--but observationally brilliant. In their…

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