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Notes on an Execution

A Novel

by Danya Kukafka

Length 9 hours 42 minutes

Language English

Narrators Mozhan Marno & Jim Meskimen

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Bookseller recommendation

“When the book opens, we meet the murderer Ansel Packer in his jail cell, 12 hours from execution. In the next chapter, he is a toddler in 1973 and we learn about his origins. At that chapter, I was hooked! As the book progresses, everything we learn about Ansel is from the point of view of the women in his life: his mother, his wife, and—my favorite—an 11-year-old girl who was in the foster care system with him. This is such an interesting exploration into the mind of a murderer. He feels very real, and very relatable.”
— Donna • A Great Good Place for Books

Bookseller recommendation

“If this book is trying to show the senselessness of violence against women and critique the ways that society is fascinated by serial killers, it succeeds....The two narrators Mozhan Marno and Jim Meskimen were both excellent. I often avoid literature via audiobook and veer more towards romance for ease of listening. But the writing was so strikingly good and the narrators so excellent that I was really drawn into the audio. All in all, I highly recommend this complex, heavy, and fascinating study of the paths our lives take and the unexpected ways that they veer and intersect.”
— Julie • Pocket Books Shop

Bookseller recommendation

“Notes on an Execution, written by Dana Kukafka and narrated by actress Mozhan Marno and comedian, impressionist and voice artist Jim Meskimen, is a psychological thriller – but it’s so much more. It’s a reflection on our justice system, and shows us that while a serial killer’s acts are out of the ordinary, there isn’t anything extraordinary about a murderer. The victims and their families are the extraordinary ones, in finding a way to survive. Even as Kukafka draws us into Ansel’s tragic, terrible story, she challenges the listener to pay more attention to the victims of violence than to perpetrators, and to question a society that is obsessed with violence and those who perpetrate it instead of finding solutions to the tragic circumstances leading that violence.”
— Claire • Honest Dog Books

Bookseller recommendation

“Notes on an Execution is a very compelling look at the psyche of a killer. The story is told both thru his eyes and thru the eyes of three woman in his life. I did not expect to like this book at all. From the beginning you know that the main character is a killer and as such should be totally repelling and unlikeable. But the articulate telling of the story and the philosophical questions posed made this a very unusual and riveting book to listen to. The narration was perfect!. I can just imagine the hours of discussion that it will elicit from book clubs.”
— Nancy • Fiction Addiction

Bookseller recommendation

“Notes on an Execution flows like a quiet river coming to a waterfall — lyrical, tense, and quietly explosive. This book is full of compassion for each character, even the killer to be executed. Kukafka has outdone herself with this book.”
— Annie Philbrick • Bank Square Books

Summary
About the author

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • WINNER OF THE EDGAR AWARD FOR BEST NOVEL • NEW YORK TIMES BEST CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR

“Defiantly populated with living women . . . beautifully drawn, dense with detail and specificity . . . Notes on an Execution is nuanced, ambitious and compelling.” —Katie Kitamura, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW (Editors' Choice)

""A searing portrait of the complicated women caught in the orbit of a serial killer. . . . Compassionate and thought-provoking."" –BRIT BENNETT, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Half

Recommended by New York Times Book Review • Los Angeles Times • Washington Post • Entertainment Weekly • Esquire • Good Housekeeping • USA Today • Buzzfeed • Goodreads • Real Simple • Marie Claire • Rolling Stone • Business Insider • Bustle • PopSugar • The Millions • The Guardian • and many more!

In the tradition of Long Bright River and The Mars Room, a gripping and atmospheric work of literary suspense that deconstructs the story of a serial killer on death row, told primarily through the eyes of the women in his life—from the bestselling author of Girl in Snow.

Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. But Ansel doesn’t want to die; he wants to be celebrated, understood.

Through a kaleidoscope of women—a mother, a sister, a homicide detective—we learn the story of Ansel’s life. We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation; Hazel, twin sister to Ansel’s wife, inseparable since birth, forced to watch helplessly as her sister’s relationship threatens to devour them all; and finally, Saffy, the detective hot on his trail, who has devoted herself to bringing bad men to justice but struggles to see her own life clearly. As the clock ticks down, these three women sift through the choices that culminate in tragedy, exploring the rippling fissures that such destruction inevitably leaves in its wake.

Blending breathtaking suspense with astonishing empathy, Notes on an Execution presents a chilling portrait of womanhood as it simultaneously unravels the familiar narrative of the American serial killer, interrogating our system of justice and our cultural obsession with crime stories, asking readers to consider the false promise of looking for meaning in the psyches of violent men.

""Poetic and mesmerizing . . . Powerful, important, intensely human, and filled with a unique examination of tragedy, one where the reader is left with a curious emotion: hope."" —USA TODAY

“A profound and staggering experience of empathy that challenges us to confront what it means to be human in our darkest moments. . . . I relished every page of this brilliant and gripping masterpiece.""—ASHLEY AUDRAIN, New York Times bestselling author of The Push

Fiction Mystery & Thriller

Danya Kukafka is the internationally bestselling author of Girl in Snow. She is a graduate of New York University’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She works as a literary agent.