Ben Reeves with John Kenney - Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt
Rakestraw Books - in partnership with Warwick's (La Jolla); Book Passage and Alibi Books - is thrilled to present debut novelist Ben Reeves as he discusses his new novel, Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt, in conversation with John Kenney (I See You've Called in Dead) on Saturday, 25 July 2026 at 9.30 AM (Pacific). Michael is just crazy about this book -- and has been since he read an advance copy back in February. It's one of the very best of the year. For this virtual event, we are lucky enough to be able to offer autographed copies.
Please register to join for this very special Zoom event by clicking the button above. Feel free to call the shop at (925) 837-7337 if you have any questions.
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.
Named a Most Anticipated Book of the Summer by: People, BuzzFeed, Goodreads, and more.
"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
For fans of Fredrik Backman and Virginia Evans, an astonishing, deeply moving 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.
John Kenney is the New York Times bestselling author of Love Poems for Married People and the novels Talk to Me and Truth in Advertising, which won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. He is a longtime contributor to The New Yorker and lives in Larchmont, New York.
