The Dead Wife’s Handbook By Hannah Beckerman

[amazon_link id=”0718178149″ target=”_blank” ][/amazon_link]’The Dead Wife’s Handbook’ is Hannah Beckerman’s debut novel.

Rachel and Max met eleven years ago. They were the perfect couple – best friends, lovers and partners and when their daughter, Ellie came along they thought their family was complete. But fate had other plans. It’s meant to be the bereaved that go through the seven stages of grief from denial to acceptance but as Max and Ellie work through their grief, Rachel too struggles to come to terms with her death and all it means – especially when her husband starts to date again, and she realises that one day he’ll find love, and that Ellie will have a new mother figure in her life.

‘The Dead Wife’s Handbook’ was one of the most anticipated debuts of 2014 and I was delighted and honoured to be part of the book tour for its release.

I will be honest with you, I found it hard to get into this book, not because I didn’t like the story but purely with a title like this, you know there wasn’t going to be a happy ending, so I tried to prolong the agony of the ending. Finally I decided that on Sunday evening, I would finish it, so I grabbed the book by the horns and found myself amidst a torrent of tears, just as I predicted.

To say that the ‘The Dead Wife’s Handbook’ is a heartbreaking story would be an understatement, as this book would certainly soften the hardest hearts. The story is a gripping and compelling one, that in the end I was unable to put down.

The story is seen through the narrative of Rachel, as she deals with life on the other side whilst watching over her loved ones as they deal with her sudden death and try to move on with their lives whilst she is left behind. It is through her watchful eye over her loved ones, that she witnesses the horrible experience of seeing the love of her life and husband move on and fall in love for the second time. Her daughter grow older and her mother deal with the anxiety of being left behind.

This book is quite an intense story and leaves a lot of questions on your mind when you finish it. Particularly is there such a thing as ‘the one’, as Rachel thought Max was her one and only and it was likewise for him, but as time passed after her death and encouragement from friends and family, Max found himself falling for Eve, a younger woman and the polar opposite of Rachel. Finding Eve, leaves a lot of unanswered questions, whether their love was real and how easily she was replaced. I found all these scenes quite hard and regularly found myself regularly thinking “What if?” which I think made this book feel like quite a particularly deep read. As well as sad scenes, there were a lot of tender moments as Max adapted to playing the role of both parents and regularly told Ellie stories of Rachel, keeping her memory fresh both unaware that Rachel was there also watching over them and remembering her own version of events.

Beautifully written, ‘The Dead Wife’s Handbook’ is a book that will have you experiencing a flurry of emotions from bittersweet sadness to deep gratitude that will have you appreciating each day as if it’s your last. It’s safe to say that Hannah has written a breathtaking and haunting book that will stay with you long after you have finished and without sounding cheesy shows that without the body, the heart and mind still do go on.

You can buy [amazon_link id=”0718178149″ target=”_blank” ]The Dead Wife’s Handbook from Amazon[/amazon_link] and is available to buy from good bookshops.