Nova Weetman lost her partner to cancer at the worst possible time. Her memoir blends hard-won wisdom with pure nostalgic joy

By Edwina Preston, PhD Candidate, School of Culture and Communication, The University of Melbourne

It’s difficult to critique a memoir. How do you critique the work – its language, structure, craft – without feeling you are exposing the author’s life and experiences to critique?

In Melbourne writer Nova Weetman’s Love, Death and Other Scenes, this is particularly difficult. She is writing about losing her much-loved partner of more than 20 years and father of her two children, playwright Aidan Fennessy, to cancer during COVID lockdown in 2020.

It’s also difficult, for me, because many…

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