My debut novel 'Mrs Death Misses Death' was published on Thursday January 28th 2021. Thank you for all your support of this lockdown release. Thank you for all who came to the launch party zooming in from my bunker to yours - It was stunning to see so many familiar names and faces popping up on my laptop at once. Thank you for all of your input and connections, your kind posts and reviews and gorgeous photos, tweets and messages. So very exciting to watch the film deal news break on Deadline in LA on publication day in London. For those of you not on Twitter and Facebook, here's a blog post of some launch highlights. Please scroll down to the bottom of this post for links to BBC Radio shows and podcasts, and tickets to amazing online events and festivals.
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my link tree: https://linktr.ee/salenagodden |
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Luther and Avengers star Elba said: “Mrs Death Misses Death feels like an instant classic with an intoxicating story that crosses time and continents. I was immediately drawn to Salena’s writing and am humbled and excited to have the opportunity to bring her brilliant words to life on screen.” Read full piece here - https://deadline.com |
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REVIEW | THE IRISH TIMES
Mrs Death Misses Death: An uplifting balm to a bad year by Emma Flynn
Short excerpt of book review:
A meditation on the amount of wasted life we’ve become accustomed to
In her debut novel, Mrs Death Misses Death, Salena Godden breathes new life into the well-worn subject of death. Using an antique desk as a conduit, harried East London writer Wolf Willeford communicates with Death herself, who appears in his flat, not as the foreboding and heavy-hooded reaper, but as an elderly, working-class black woman eager to talk about her work. Together they travel across time and space, swapping stories and mapping her memoirs in this unexpectedly comforting page-turner.
Given the shape the past year has taken, a book with death in its title or between its covers might not seem like the obvious choice of reading material. However, the novel manages to uplift and reaffirm the power of connection and collectivism.
Godden’s background as a poet and performer enriches this debut as she alternates between poetry and prose in telling Mrs Death’s stories. She has elegantly wrangled the energy of her work into a new medium. Where her prose is often frank and conversational, her poetry is sparse and raw.
Writing about the death of Prince and the simultaneous public outpouring of grief that usually follows the death of a celebrity, Godden spears the feeling of this particular type of loss, where art is the connective tissue between us and a stranger we felt we knew.
Mrs Death Misses Death is punctuated with reminders about Grenfell; about the thousands upon thousands of refugees drowning in the Mediteranean between man-made borders; the children starving in poverty; the homeless in doorways and tents; those lost to Covid due to governmental incompetence; all the lives that could be saved were it not for the fact it is unprofitable to do so.
Godden has created a meditation on the sheer amount of wasted life we are accustomed to accepting as part of the cost of living, the avoidable tragedies that are the byproduct of extractive capitalism. Just as resolutely as Godden writes about how death is inevitable, she underlines again and again that so many deaths are preventable and that these tragedies need not be repeated...
Thank you Emma Flynn, read the full piece here
Mrs Death Misses Death is unlike any other book I’ve ever read. It begins with humorous disclaimers of what the book is not, warning the reader against any expectations, before throwing us into verse and diary entries. Throughout the work, writer Salena Godden mixes poetry, prose and song while managing to keep the book cohesive. Brilliant, powerful, unique, this book is exhausting to read and yet beautiful to experience. I will be shouting from my window to anyone who can hear me; Mrs Death Misses Death is a masterpiece of modern literature.
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| Ronnie Turner, Book Review |
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Books and Lovely Things |
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Thank you to Eithne Farry, Mail on Sunday
 Limited edition gold-edge books at Goldsboro bookshop  Mrs Death Misses Death spotted in bookshop windows in the outside world for reals - Thanks for the pictures! Kirkdale Bookshop and Pages of Hackney     |
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| TICKETS: link.dice.fm/OWIuJk2Wkdb |
