Wow! We’ve just had another read of Jack Waddington’s latest book draft; a grief-soaked, darkly humorous, and brutally honest portrait of sibling love and loss — told through a series of raw, confessional letters to a deceased younger brother, Sam. And, it is powerful!
Sam had Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a degenerative condition that robbed him of his physical strength but never his spirit. When he died at age 26, Jack was gutted. Bereft. But he kept talking to him. And then he started writing to him — on trains, in hospital waiting rooms, beside his empty wheelchair, and in the bedroom where he took his last breath. Jack tells us that this book was never meant to be a book. It was a survival mechanism. Now, it’s a tribute. And we have been entrusted in curating it for Jack. And, of course, for Sam.
For us, this book sits at the intersection of Notes on Grief by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Brother. Do. You. Love. Me. by Manni and Reuben Coe — yet it offers a rarely heard perspective: the sibling of a disabled young man navigating guilt, survivor’s shame, and the absurdities of caregiving and grief. It blends memoir, epistolary narrative, gallows humour, and emotional candour in a voice that’s been described by our review team as “raw, funny, and devastating — like a pub chat with your soul.”
*The author, Jack Waddington, is a trained teacher with a background in creative nonfiction, who is deeply interested in the intersections of disability, masculinity, and mental health. Jack is also a visual artist and his art, at our suggestion, will feature in his book.
Available from us at www.bookhubpublishing.com Amazon and in selected bookstores in Ireland and the UK in Winter 2025.
