The Best Way to Bury your Husband by Alexia Casale

The Best Way to Bury your Husband by Alexia Casale

Another book borrowed from my local library in Gorey, Co Wexford. My poor husband and kids looked worried when this book came back with me in my book bag.

Written by Alexia Casale, this black comedy had me in absolute stitches at some points, while some other parts had me in absolute floods of tears of sadness with empathy in some parts that I could relate to.

While this book held the very real and terrifying topic of domestic violence, gaslighting, and toxic control, the way in which Casale chose to write this novel was extremely hilarious yet its black humour did nothing to take away from the all-important message that story meant to convey.

I think what made it so enthralling was how, for the main character Sally, her life aside from this huge dominating issue, was very mundane. She had no life at all. She had no contact with anyone (even her children at times), no friends, no hobbies (although we learn that Sally loves music). Sally does not have anything as her husband had over years basically stripped her bare of who she was.

Covid with the Lockdowns, was a time when domestic violence reached an alarming new high globally. Casale’s research for this novel found that “On average, a woman is killed by a man every three days in the UK:”. It is important to realise that women can also be violent towards their partners too. Domestic violence, controlling others, and gaslighting are the main themes within the book. As a specialist human rights non-fiction editor, Alexia knows the true horrific magnitude of violence towards women and girls. “During the Lockdown, 67 per cent of victims told Women’s Aid that the abuse that they were suffering had escalated…”. Lack of equality for women is also explored in the storyline with different cultures, beliefs, religions, and then the lack of acceptance, for example the LGBTQIA+ community in some ethnic backgrounds. One of the characters, “… Samira references the teenager killed by her parents some months after drinking bleach…” to get out of a forced marriage is based on a real person, the late Shafilea Ahmed, 1986-2003.

Published by VIKING an imprint of PENGUIN BOOKS in 2023, whilst Alexia wrote with a laugh out loud nature, she still at all times kept true to her goal of raising extremely upsetting and important REAL issues, using the voices of her created character’s life stories. Although it is a humorous and entertaining novel, the sheer brutality of the truth that this is real people’s realities for years is harrowing. This book would make an exceptional film.

Blurb: The Best Way to Bury your Husband by Alexia Casale

“MAYBE IF I DO ENOUGH WEIRD STUFF IN THE RUN-UP, NO ONE WILL SUSPECT A THING WHEN I MOVE INTO THE BODY-DISPOSAL PHASE OF MY LIFE AS A SECRET WIDOW.

Sally never meant to cave in her husband’s head in with a skillet. Or at least she didn’t until, suddenly she did.

But Sally isn’t the only woman in town being pushed to breaking point. When coincidence brings four strangers together, a surprising solidarity is formed.

So can they find the best way to bury their husbands- and get away with murder?”

Told through mainly the eyes of Sally, the protagonist, readers get to see through the vision of Ruth, Janey, Leila and her daughter Samira. Casale has written a children’s novel The Bone Dragon and is a Script Consultant and Human Rights Editor, but this is Alexia’s first adult novel and her human rights work and the rocketing levels of domestic violence during the Covid pandemic influenced her to write this novel.