Travis is Death in the modern world. He wears jeans and a T-shirt and lives in a small, grey town. His job is to offer people comfort in their final hours of life. He’s stoic, gentle, and a little naive, despite everything he knows. He’s young and handsome, despite who he is. Each death he witnesses is meaningful to him; he listens, never judges, and most importantly, never tries to change anyone’s fate. He knows that every life must eventually end to maintain the balance of the universe and he respects the cycle.

Then he meets Dalia, a midwife, and her boisterous eight-year-old daughter Layla, who live across the hall. As Dalia and Layla come to embrace Travis, it becomes more difficult to maintain the detachment that’s allowed him to function for so long. Their time together teaches him what’s truly important in life—and what might be irrevocably lost in death.

Written with radiant warmth, wisdom, and compassion, Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt is a timeless 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 at time’s passing.

I received an advance copy of this book courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

There are books you enjoy, and then there are books that worm their way into your heart and stay there. This book is firmly in that second category. I think the last time a book’s ending made me actually gasp out loud and then immediately tear up was when I read The Time Traveler’s Wife years ago. And if you know me you know how much I love that book, so this one definitely hit hard.

This book focuses on a man named Travis. Travis is Death. As in the actual Grim Reaper, except he looks like a regular guy in jeans and a t-shirt, living in a small English town, showing up when people are at the end of their lives to offer them some comfort and company in their final hours. He’s gentle and patient and a little naive in the way someone who has only ever observed life from the outside might be. He doesn’t interfere. He doesn’t judge. He just shows up, listens, and offers the dying some company as they transition out of this lifetime.

Then he meets his neighbor, single mother Dalia and her eight-year-old daughter Layla. Dalia is warm and a little lonely while Layla is loud and bright and full of questions. The two of them are exactly the kind of people Travis has no framework for. He’s spent centuries helping people at the end of their lives, but has never spent any amount of time with people still living theirs, and he’s definitely never had anyone make him wonder what he’s been missing out on.

The book moves around in time, weaving between Travis’s relationship with Dalia and Layla and the various people he sits with in their last moments. Some of those deaths are hard. A few involve animals, which I’ll mention because that hits differently for some readers. And if you’re someone who finds it difficult to read about death in any form, this book is probably going to be a lot for you. It doesn’t shy away from any of it. But it also never wallows in it or uses it for shock value. Death in this book is just what it is: part of the balance of things.

The characters (especially the main three) carry the book. Travis is fascinating because he experiences everything with this kind of wide-eyed earnestness that should feel ridiculous but never does. He’s been around forever and somehow still manages to be surprised by people. Dalia is grounded and real in a way that makes her feel like someone you’ve actually met. And Layla is the kind of kid character who earns her place in the story instead of just being this little monster who occasionally pops up and says something precocious. The relationships between all three of them are what make this book work as well as it does.

I also want to talk about the style, because this book is not written in a conventional way. There are no quotation marks anywhere, and if you know me, you know how much I hate that. I’m not someone who has much patience for stylistic choices that feel like they’re getting in the way of the story. But here? It actually worked. The whole book has this dreamy, continuous quality to it and it almost requires an unconventional style.

This is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in a long time. I could go on and on gushing over this sweet, heart shattering, beautiful little story. It’s under 300 pages but packs one hell of a punch. I loved it so much I immediately purchased a physical copy. I have no doubt it will be one of my top ten reads this year.

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