Book Buzz: The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford by Nafissa Thompson-Spires
“A hot-tempered moonshiner and ne’er-do-well with four “wives,” Rich ascribes his brash, abusive behavior to barometric pressure, the electricity remaining in his body and hands from a lightning strike when he was a child. And it almost works for him, until he crosses all of the women in his life at the wrong time. The novel’s conceit stems in part from my attempt to grapple with my family’s and my own trauma and what constitutes truth. But what interests me most here is the lightning, the actual lightning.”
― Nafissa Thompson-Spires, How a Lightning Strike Affected My Identity and My Main Characters, LitHub
What booksellers are saying about The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford
- A suspicious death with multiple suspects, motives, and means? This is catnip for me! Each part tells a different perspective on Richard Milford’s death, all from vibrant, distinctive personalities. This is a tightly packed short novel that will appeal to mystery readers and lit fic lovers alike.
― Becca, Bookmarks, Winston-Salem, NC | BUY
- I usually don’t like unreliable narrators, but this particular story needed that type of narrator to really solidify it. For a short novel, this packed a punch in a few pages. Perfect read for those who want something to read in one sitting. I also loved the writing style.
― Kala, M Judson, Booksellers, Greenville, SC | BUY
- Hilarious, endearing, a little magical, and immensely PETTY! If this book were a warm pie on a window sill, I’d be floating nose-first through the air towards it. I’d dislocate my jaw to eat it in one bite, then regret I didn’t savor the moment because it was just so good. This is one of those books that I wish I could experience for the first time over and over again. Rest in p****, Richard Milford. HA!
― Julie, Flyleaf Books, Chapel Hill, NC | BUY
About Nafissa Thompson-Spires
Nafissa Thompson-Spires is the author of the award-winning, National Book Award longlisted short story collection, Heads of the Colored People. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in T he Paris Review Daily, New York magazine’s “The Cut,” The Root, The White Review, Ploughshares, 400 Souls: A Community History of African America 1619–2019, and The 1619 Project, among other publications. In addition to a debut novel, The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Rich Milford, her young adult debut is forthcoming. She is the recipient of a 2024 United States Artists Grant and a 2019 Whiting Award.
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“I think directing is performing and writing is performing. I find myself constantly aware that I’m not performing when I’m on the couch with my loved ones. I would even go a step further and say I’m really good at that, probably because of some trans trauma. Because when you’re a kid, you learn very young that people want you to perform a version of yourself that isn’t you. I learned how to do that really well, and I think it’s an essential part of filmmaking.” 
“When I began this novel, for some reason, well, I set out to write a love story, and I had the idea of having my protagonist be a really serious musician who was really in love with her art, in love with creating music. And then when she falls in love with a person, those two passions conflict. I also felt it was really timely. A lot of what this novel is about is the question of why do we need art? What good is music? What does it do for us?” 
“I think we’re all born with potential, and while it takes thousands of hours of practice to turn that potential into something real, making that kind of commitment is what life is all about. That’s one of the reasons Gen A.I. bothers me so much. There is no effort, no practice, no learning, no growth.” 
“Bad Words didn’t have a single moment of inspiration! It sort of congealed over many years in book publishing, and I shaped it around a lot of elements I find fun to write and think about. I love a frightening critic character, and I love two characters in diametric opposition being forced to reevaluate each other. I also think it’s an underdiscussed and bonkers fact that the quiet agreement of professional criticism is that, someday, you will become the sworn enemy of somebody in your very small artistic industry, because you can’t like every book.” 
