The Red of My Blood cover art

The Red of My Blood

A Death and Life Story

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The Red of My Blood

By: Clover Stroud
Narrated by: Clover Stroud
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Can death bring something good to my life?

A few weeks before Christmas, Clover's sister died of breast cancer, aged 46. Just days before, she had been given years to live. Her sudden death split Clover's life apart. The Red of My Blood charts Clover's fearless passage through the first year after her sister's death. It is an audiobook about what life feels like when death interrupts it and about bearing the unbearable and describing an experience that seems beyond words. Lyrical, hopeful, it is also about the magical way in which death and life exist so vividly beside one another and the wonder of being human.

©2022 Clover Stroud (P)2022 Penguin Audio Grief & Loss Parenting & Families Personal Development

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Critic reviews

"An absolute gutting masterpiece of a book." (Lisa Taddeo)

"Clover Stroud is a fearless explorer of the human heart and a writer of incomparable grace and passion. She also understands more about loss, sorrow, grief and resilience than most people will ever have to learn." (Elizabeth Gilbert)
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I loved having Clover and The Red Of My Blood in my ear. It was comforting having someone understand. To write about how death feels and how life continues and becomes much more sharply in focus. So many moments in this memoir stirred me, made me clasp my hand over my mouth to stifle my sobs as tears fell from my eyes. And in the next moment I'm saying "yep" in agreement and nodding my head and smiling. There is truth and human connection in this book. It's much more than a memoir it's a bridge from this word to the next. Thank you Clover. ❤ Louise Grasso @daughterofthebottle

I didn't want it to end...

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Just dazzling, hugely life affirming and just incredibly comforting. I cannot recommend highly enough. Read it and it will change your life for the better.

Hugely beautiful

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I found myself taking deep breaths often throughout this book. I love the way Clover Stroud writes - and also how she speaks. I find her expression to be honest and slightly naughty - which is a relief to me!
Listening to this book had me pulling over in my car multiple times - and taking a moment to think and feel.
It sparked a sort of cathartic processing of my own experiences of the death of my sister at a similar time. The strange things you walk through after someone dies, the thoughts, the turmoil, the shit, the pain, the bubble. Also the people, places and things that leave a strange imprint on you at the time.
For me, the best bits were:
the special language- the code between sisters - Pure New Wool’. Heart wrenching:( beautiful.
The shadow of death that hangs around you when someone dies - somehow she manages to put this on paper.
And the worrying about her dead body. Seriously, I am so pleased someone said this out-loud!
It’s intense - but if you’re looking for someone/something to walk through the experiences of loss & death & life & love & searching with, this is for you. If you’ve ‘been there’ you will find a kindred spirit within this book & those who know, know how important that is.

A raw, heart felt book, took my breath away at times!

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After loosing my mum in 2020 to cancer, I have not really been able to make sense of her death and where my life now fits. This book spoke in ways I’ve never heard anyone else speak of death. I felt it fully, I cried and smiled with complete joy at the words. Thank you so very much for allowing me time to feel something more than I did. Feels like the beginning of a journey..

Deeply and achingly felt every word.

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This intensely beautiful, open and honest book exploring life and death is unlike anything I’ve read previously and I would highly recommend to anybody interested in what it is to be human.

Beautiful, raw and profoundly moving

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I liked the way the author weaves the energies of grief through the forest. She used colour to describe its greatest sting and this for me in a sign of a fantastic writer who is capable of healing those who are lucky enough to read and listen to her life story. Stroud is a survivor of great life challenges that we can draw strength from. Just like her sis Nel.

My review of this book

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What an absolutely wonderful, heartbreaking and beautiful piece of writing. I feel this book will stay with me forever. It was incredible.

Incredible

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It’s very hard to be honest and true but Clover has achieved this in a very special realistic way 🙏

Love the Honesty

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Clover takes me into a different world that is intimately familiar but estranged from my everyday life. A place where I am so deeply attached to the immensely comfortable in. A wild free space that I can inhabit again without the constant pressure and guilt I have felt for decades now. It’s a kind of sublime homecoming for me to spend hours inside Clover’s writing.
Another beautiful meticulously crafted book. I love this book.
Thank you 🍀 Clover.

Delightful

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What a work of art!
Clover has done it again!
This book follows on from the death of her sister Nell in 2019.
The way clover writes is so emotive and brutally honest, it feels as if you are reliving the journey with her.
If anyone is looking for a read, then this is it!
A beautifully written experience of having to live after your closest human leaves without you.

Breathtakingly personal and amazingly written!

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