Delirious
ABOUT
THE BOOK
It’s time. Ex-cop Mary and retired librarian Pete decide to move to a retirement village. They monitor each other’s declining health—his tachycardia and hip, her ankle and knee. Selling their house should offer closure, but the past intrudes relentlessly. A detective calls with new information about their son Will’s death forty years ago. Mary contemplates her sister’s shortened life. Pete remembers his late mother’s delirium. This emotionally charged novel explores aging and family dynamics, dramatising universal questions: How do we care for others? How do we accept our changing selves? Delirious reveals how second chances arrive unexpectedly.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
In Delirious, Mary, a former police officer, and her husband Pete, a retired librarian, move into a retirement village as their bodies begin to falter. The transition stirs painful memories of the loss of their son Will, decades earlier. When new information about Will’s case surfaces, old wounds reopen, forcing the couple to confront the emotional depths they’ve long kept buried. Ageing, though challenging, becomes a profound privilege: a time to reflect, to soften grief into something woven into the fabric of their lives, and to learn from the past without being defined by it. As Mary and Pete navigate memory, grief, and the evolving nature of care, they begin to make peace with their histories. In doing so, new versions of themselves quietly emerge—wiser, more compassionate, and attuned to the quiet, surprising ways life can still offer renewal. Delirious is a poignant meditation on family, ageing, and the enduring possibility of second chances. (Auckland Council Libraries)