EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT
For fans of Fredrik Backman and Virginia Evans, an astonishing novel about finding beauty in the brevity of life, as narrated by the one who knows it best: Death.
Travis is Death in the modern world. He lives with his cat in a small, gray town. His job is to offer people comfort in their final hours of life, which he does without complaint or judgement. He’s stoic, gentle, and a little naive, despite who he is, but he never tries to change anyone’s fate. He is responsible for maintaining the balance of nature, and every life must eventually end.
For fans of Fredrik Backman and Virginia Evans, an astonishing novel about finding beauty in the brevity of life, as narrated by the one who knows it best: Death.
Travis is Death in the modern world. He lives with his cat in a small, gray town. His job is to offer people comfort in their final hours of life, which he does without complaint or judgement. He’s stoic, gentle, and a little naive, despite who he is, but he never tries to change anyone’s fate. He is responsible for maintaining the balance of nature, and every life must eventually end.
Then Travis meets Dalia, a midwife, and her boisterous eight-year-old daughter Layla, who live across the hall, and despite his best attempts to keep his distance, he finds himself wholeheartedly embraced by other people for the first time. So it is with this seemingly unremarkable family that Travis begins to understand what it means to be truly alive—and what might be irrevocably lost in death.
Written with radiant warmth, wisdom, and compassion, Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is a timeless and ultimately uplifting story about appreciating life, accepting its end, and finding our place in the universe—especially when it feels most impossible—that will resonate with anyone who has ever loved and lost or worried about time’s passing.
- Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster
- Hardcover
- July 2026
- 256 Pages
- 9781668216361
Buy the Book
$28.00
About Ben Reeves
Ben Reeves lives in Peterborough, UK, with his wife and two children. An early draft of Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt won the international 2024 Bath Novel Award.
When he’s not writing, he paints, makes music, and works as a web designer for a book printing company.
Praise
“A gorgeously written book about what it means to be alive.”—Jodi Picoult via Instagram
“This is one of the most affecting, original, and unforgettable novels I have ever read. . . The characters are so vivid that they seem to be sitting beside you, their loves and losses your own. Absolutely breathtaking, with a perfect twist of an ending.”—Sarah Damoff, bestselling author of The Bright Years
“One of the best, most moving books I have read in years.”—Scott Detrow, NPR
“This novel has all the ingredients of unforgettability: a plot you’ve never seen, characters you want to love, writing that glimmers on the page, and a spectacular ending that will smack you in the face with an aching joy. Days later, I’m still brimming.”—Monica Wood, bestselling author of How to Read a Book
“Reeves repeatedly takes us to life’s most terrifying knife-edge, heartening us with the steady poetry of everyday life. This clever and vivid book made me fall in love with our collective ephemerality. I literally said, ‘Wow,’ about halfway through. The ending left me speechless.” —Matthew Quick, New York Times bestselling author of The Silver Linings Playbook and Dad, Love, Me
“One of the most original, riveting and moving books I’ve read in a long while.”—Graeme Simsion, New York Times bestselling author of The Rosie Project
“Be prepared to reflect on what makes a well-lived life and to shed some tears before sending a copy to a friend. A good suggestion for fans of Matt Haig, Gabrielle Zevin, or Marcus Zusak.” —Booklist, starred review
“A gorgeous, transcendent novel… Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is a balm, a salve, a gift. And perhaps, most potently of all, it is an urgent reminder to do the thing that you will wish on your deathbed you could have done one last time.”—BookReporter
Discussion Questions
- Brainstorm some adjectives to describe Travis, Dalia, Layla, Solomon, and Nick, and then think about how they would describe one another. How are they different? How are they similar? Which characters resonate most strongly with you?
- In what ways does the British small-town setting contribute to the mood of Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt? How would this book feel if it took place in London, or in another country entirely?
- What effect does the structure and style of Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt have on your reading experience? For example, how would your reading experience change if Reeves solely focused on the human elements of life, or if the entire book was told from Travis’s first-person point of view?
- Does it resonate with you that Death might manifest as a man like Travis? If you were to conceive your own embodiment of Death, what or how would it look, act, and sound like?
- What are some turning points in Travis’s relationship to the living? What is it about Dalia and her daughters that has such a strong effect on him?
- How did your feelings toward Dalia evolve over the course of the novel? Can you think of characters in other books or media who face similar profound grief?
- Of the minor characters Travis mentions throughout the book—some in longer devoted sections, some in less than a sentence—who stood out to you? Why?
- Why did Reeves choose the mayfly as a recurring symbol? What does it represent?
- Using the book as evidence, how do you think Reeves conceives of the relationship between life and death? Did Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt inform your own thoughts about this dynamic?
- How did learning the identity of the very old woman affect your understanding of the book? Were you surprised by the twist?
- What were your favorite lines or moments from the novel? Did any of them move or inspire you? What feelings did Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt leave you with?
- What would you do with your twenty-minute gift?
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