Part crime fiction, part murder mystery, part meditation on grieving, friendship and family, Maria Donovan’s debut novel, The Chicken Soup Murder, is a coming-of-age story narrated with resilience and humor by Michael, whose cozy young life is threatened by bullying and blasted by visitations from the biggest bully of them all: Death. Within Michael’s own past are unanswered questions: why does he live with his grandmother? Are his parents really in prison? His magical creative thinking lands him in trouble: how reliable is his story and why is he the only one who thinks a murder has been committed? What can he, a schoolboy about to turn twelve, do about it? Haunted by the injustice of a killing, he takes on the burden of trying to do the right thing – first helping the widowed mother of his best friend, and then seeking justice for the friend and neighbor who apparently died while making him chicken soup. Bereavement is hard enough but there are added difficulties in coming to terms with the deliberate ending of a life. A sensitive and moving first novel from the author of short-story collection Pumping Up Napoleon, The Chicken Soup Murder was a finalist for the Dundee International Book Prize.
