Grief Is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter review – a bravura rendering of bereavement

Actor Russell Tovey’s narration crackles with compassion and menace in this magical story of a widower and his young sons in mourning Less than a week after the sudden death of his wife, a grieving man opens his front door to a giant crow who scoops him up into his wing and tells him: “I won’t leave until you don’t need me anymore.” Still in shock, the man is facing the prospect of raising his two young sons alone. The bird, which has previously been roaming around the family’s flat at night,...

By Fiona Sturges