Last orders - Graham Swift

Four men once close to Jack Dodds, a London butcher, meet to carry out this perculiar last wish: to have his ashes scattered into the sea. For reasons best known to herself, Jack's widow, Amy, declines to join them. On the surface the tale of a simple if increasingly bizarre day's outing, Last Orders is Graham Swift's most poignant exploration of the complexity and courage of ordinary lives.

'His finest book to date; emotionally charged and technically surperb...Last Orders is about how we live and how we die and our struggle to make abiding connections between the two' Times Literary Supplement

'Inspired...His finest novel yet' Guardian