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Shop nowCompetitive Grieving
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Learn moreAn Entertainment Weekly Pick of Summer’s Best New Books
Wren’s closest friend, her anchor since childhood, is dead. Stewart Beasley. Gone. She can’t quite believe it and she definitely can’t bring herself to google what causes an aneurysm. Instead of weeping or facing reality, Wren has been dreaming up the perfect funeral plans, memorial buffets, and processional songs for everyone from the corner bodega owner to her parents (none of whom show signs of imminent demise).
Stewart was a rising TV star, who—for reasons Wren struggles to understand—often surrounded himself with sycophants, amusing in his life, but intolerable in his death. When his icy mother assigns Wren the task of disseminating his possessions alongside George (Stewart’s maddening, but oddly charming lawyer), she finds herself at the epicenter of a world in which she wants no part, where everyone is competing to own a piece of Stewart’s memory (sometimes literally).
Remembering the boy Stewart was and investigating the man he became, Wren finds herself wondering, did she even know this person who she once considered an extension of herself? Can you ever actually know anyone? How well does she really know herself?
Through laughter and tears, Nora Zelevansky’s Competitive Grieving shines a light on the universal struggle to grieve amidst the noise, to love with a broken heart, and to truly know someone who is gone forever.
Nancy Schwartzman is a Peabody Award-nominated documentary film director and producer who uses storytelling and technology to create safer communities for women and girls. Her documentary feature debut, Roll Red Roll, was nominated for a Peabody award, premiered in 2018 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and has screened at over 40 film festivals worldwide and garnered 7 best documentary awards. It streamed in 190 countries on Netflix, PBS, and BBC. She is currently directing a Netflix original documentary feature with Reveal: Center for Investigative Reporting and Motto Pictures that will premiere in 2022. Her recent short film One Shot One Kill (2020), explored gun culture for Mother Jones, and her short film Anonymous Comes To Town (2019), co-produced with the Tribeca Film Institute and Gucci’s Chime for Change, garnered over a 4.5 million views on the Guardian. Her first film, The Line (2010), a short documentary examining consent, was used by the White House for a campaign around sexuality, and her follow-up film xoxosms (2013), was on PBS/POV and BBC, exploring love between two teenagers, bridged by technology. A globally recognized human rights activist, Nancy is a tech founder and created the Obama/Biden White House’s award-winning mobile app Circle of 6, designed to reduce sexual violence among America’s youth and college students. She has presented her work at the White House, the United Nations, TEDxSheffield, CNN, Forbes, Good Pitch, DOCNYC and at over 60 colleges and universities. She is a graduate of Columbia University and a recent transplant to Los Angeles.
Nora Zelevansky is the author of novels Competitive Grieving, Will You Won't You Want Me?, and Semi-Charmed Life. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, ELLE, Town & Country, the Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and Vanity Fair among others. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, two kids, and enormous cat, Waldo.
Katie Schorr's audiobook credits include narrating the novels in Alyson Noel's bestselling Immortals series – Evermore, Blue Moon, Shadowland, and Dark Flame. Of her work on the series, AudioFile magazine has said, "Narrator Katie Schorr has a wonderfully raspy, youthful voice, which she puts to good effect on the cast of teenaged characters."Schorr’s one-woman show, Take Me. Seriously., ran for six months at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater, and she performs throughout New York in new works at The Ensemble Studio Theater and Ars Nova, among other theaters. She has appeared on VH1's Best Week Ever and co-stars in the web series Head in the Oven with Saturday Night Live actor Bill Hader. She is the co-creator of Yoga Partners: A Web Series.
Reviews
“Is it strange to find a book about loss such a joyous affirmation of what makes life worth the struggle? With her irrepressible wit and warmth, Zelevansky perfectly captures the vortex that follows a shocking loss, while also reminding us that even on the hardest days there is always the possibility of finding redemption, forgiveness, and even love.”
“I absolutely loved Nora Zelevansky’s Competitive Grieving: a story about life and death, grief and identity, friendship and memory, told with a sharp eye and warm heart.”
“Nora Zelevansky’s lovely Competitive Grieving is equal parts romantic, thoughtful, and truly moving—as well as being a lively and sincerely funny exploration of how well two people can ever truly know each other. You will hug your friends a little tighter after reading it.”
“With a satisfying blend of warmth and irreverence, Nora Zelevansky explores grief as both a private struggle and a public performance. Several of these characters began to feel like my good friends—the rest, like my enemies. Competitive Grieving is a sharply observed comedy about the complexity of friendship and the finality of death.”
“How do we handle grief? When Wren’s touchstone friend dies, she’s unmoored, and even more so when she begins to wonder if she really knew her beloved friend as well as she thought she did. And that makes her wonder: how well does she know herself? Darkly funny and deeply moving, about love, loss, and the transformative power of grief.”
“Zelevansky’s quirky novel is a heartfelt look at a lifelong friendship and the impact of a friend’s death, which can also open a door in one’s heart to allow others in.”
“Romance, touching humor, thoughtful reflections on loss, the chaotic aftermath of death, and even a love story come together in Nora Zelevansky’s Competitive Grieving.”
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