Dying Times — Darlene Madott

Dying Times is the story of a successful though conflicted lady litigator, told with a dark undercurrent of humor that underpins this striking meditation on dying, and discovering a meaningful approach to living. Death is all around the lady litigator. It is her loving, wise mother who, by dying, triggers open hatred within the family. It is her greedy, irascible but brilliant senior partner at a big downtown law firm who, while determined to control everything, even his own death, discovers generosity. It is the last client the senior partner and lady litigator will share, a man in a wheelchair who is appalling in his need to wreak ruin on his wife in a monumentally lucrative divorce case. Far from sombre, the novel is told with a wry wit and a transcendent tenderness that is fresh and surprising. It is a presentation of raw reality, with characters navigating the emotions of love on the verge of abuse and hatred, loyalty on the verge of betrayal, and visceral energy on the verge of exhaustion. Dying Times frames an important conversation: We die as individually as we have lived.