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Memento Mori

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( 7,189 ratings, 1,033 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Memento Mori by Muriel Spark is a darkly comedic exploration of mortality and ageing. The story unfolds around a group of elderly friends and acquaintances grappling with mysterious phone calls reminding them of their inevitable deaths. As they confront the caller's unsettling message, buried secrets and old rivalries resurface, painting a poignant yet humorous picture of human nature and the passage of time.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you're intrigued by darkly comic explorations of mortality and the complexities of old age, with a touch of mystery. Muriel Spark weaves a tale filled with sharp wit and keen observations on human nature, set against the backdrop of elderly characters receiving ominous phone calls reminding them that they must die. The novel combines humour with a contemplative atmosphere, making it a compelling read for fans of thought-provoking fiction.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

A brilliant, daring and darkly funny novel by Muriel Spark, 'mistress of the highest high comedy' (The Times). Published as part of a beautifully designed series to mark the 40th anniversary of the Virago Modern Classics.

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Remember you must die.

Dame Lettie Colston is the first of her circle to receive insinuating anonymous phone calls. Neither she, nor her friends, wish to be reminded of their mortality, and their geriatric feathers are thoroughly ruffled. As the caller's activities become more widespread, old secrets are dusted off, exposing past and present duplicities, self-deception, and blackmail. Nobody is above suspicion.

Witty, poignant, and wickedly hilarious, Memento Mori may ostensibly concern death, but it is a book which leaves one relishing life all the more.

Books included in the VMC 40th anniversary series include: Frost in May by Antonia White; The Collected Stories of Grace Paley; Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault; The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter; The Weather in the Streets by Rosamond Lehmann; Deep Water by Patricia Highsmith; The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West; Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; Heartburn by Nora Ephron; The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy; Memento Mori by Muriel Spark; A View of the Harbour by Elizabeth Taylor; and Faces in the Water by Janet Frame.

Series: Virago Modern Classics

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

The book is praised for its witty and economical narrative, skilfully delivering surprises and well-crafted dialogue imbued with humour. It is noted for its chilling brilliance, combining a macabre and amusing approach that has captivated readers and critics alike. The novel's unique and gruesome achievement is recognised as delightfully entertaining.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780349010342

Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 03 May 2018

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Virago Press Ltd

Contributors:

  • Introduction by A.L. Kennedy

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 16.0mm

Width: 136.0mm

Height: 200.0mm

Weight: 202g

Pages: 240

About the Author

Muriel Spark, D.B.E, C. Litt, was born in Edinburgh in 1918. A poet and novelist, she also wrote children's books, radio plays, a comedy, 'Doctors of Philosophy', first performed in London in 1962, and biographies. She is best known for her stories and many successful novels, including Memento Mori, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, Loitering With Intent, The Comforters, A Far Cry from Kensington and The Public Image. For her long career of literary achievement, Muriel Spark won international praise and many awards, including the David Cohen British Literature Award, the T. S. Eliot Award, the Saltire Prize, the Boccaccio Prize for European Literature, the Gold Pen Award and the Italia Prize for dramatic radio. Muriel Spark was given an honorary doctorate of Letters from a number of universities, London, Edinburgh and Oxford among these. She died in 2006.

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