Grief is the Thing With Feathers: why Max Porter’s strange but ‘magnificent’ debut keeps inspiring adaptations

‘I always say this: “The book is yours”. It’s supposed to be fluid and pull-apart-able’: Max Porter, in his home town of Bath, UK. Photograph: Stephen Shepherd/The Observer

The final words of Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing With Feathers are “Unfinished. Beautiful. Everything”. So it has been for the slender novella, about a father and his sons grieving the loss of their wife and mother. Somewhat improbably for an experimental hybrid of poem and prose featuring a giant talking crow, Porter’s debut has not only been a massive success, but has continued to evolve. Since it was published a decade ago, it has been translated into 36 languages and adapted for stage and screen, including a theatre show starring Oscar winner Cillian Murphy and a film starring Benedict Cumberbatch, due for release later this year.

The book’s latest evolution is an Australian stage adaptation, premiering at Sydney’s Belvoir St Theatre this month. There have already been five stage productions, and a dance adaptation and Slovenian puppet version are on the way; an opera is in development.