Nova Weetman’s unforgettable memoir reflects on experiences of love and loss from throughout her life, including: losing her beloved partner, playwright Aidan Fennessy, during the 2020 Covid lockdown; the death of her mother ten years earlier; her daughter turning eighteen and finishing school; and her own physical ageing. Using these events as a lens, Nova considers how various kinds of losses – and the complicated love they represent – change us and can become the catalysts for letting go.

This is a moving, honest account of farewelling a partner of twenty-five years, parenting teenagers through grief, buying property for the first time at the age of fifty, watching Aidan live on through his plays, and learning to appreciate spending hours alone with only the household cat for company. Warm and wise – and often joyful – Love, Death & Other Scenes ultimately focuses on the living we do after losses and what we learn from them.

Praise for LOVE, DEATH and other scenes

Annabel Crabb

‘Weetman stares with composure, honesty and curiosity into the face of pain, despair and loneliness... and what she finds is rich and complex. It's a beautiful, generous book.’

Myf Warhurst

‘This is a devastatingly beautiful exploration of life, love and loss, from a brilliant writer who found the courage to share the most difficult parts of her life. An exceptional book.’

Jacinta Parsons

‘This book is so special. Nova Weetman writes like Helen Garner makes me feel. I was slowly but surely submerged into the world that she creates and, by the time I realised, it was too late and I was wholly inside. Love, Death & Other Scenes is a treasure.’

Melina Marchetta

‘Written with such beauty and honesty. I felt as if I knew these people to the core, and now profoundly miss them.’

Ben Law

‘As much a map of grief as it is a vast vessel of profound love. As much about the cruelty of lives cut unfairly short as it is about how those lives transform us. This is a moving, tender and loving book.’

Love Death and Other Scenes is the new memoir by Nova Weetman.