Join us for Book Club at Bedford Books on Thursday September 17 at 6:30pm. We will be discussing Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt by Ben Reeves.

There will be lively discussion, questions posed and answered and time to connect with fellow YS Members.

This is a zero pressure book club – didn’t quite finish the book? Come anyway.

Hosted by Fran Hauser & Emily Winograd Leonard.

Light refreshments will be available.

Member RSVP required.

This book is available for purchase at Bedford Books! You can also purchase the book on the Bedford Books website here and have it shipped to you.

About the Book

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.

About the Author

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.

Location:
Bedford Books
13 Court Road
Bedford, NY 10506