Ordinary Funny Tragic: The hilarious new novel from the author of Trivial Grievances by Bridie Jabour

A darkly sharp, wryly funny and entirely delightful novel about bad mothers, problematic families, forgiveness and finally – reluctantly – growing up.

‘She was the most charismatic, most fun, most selfish person I have ever met. I used to think everyone thought that about their mothers. I was 25 before I realised that was very much not the case. A late bloomer. And now she’s dead. For some reason I never entertained the thought that she was mortal, and now I’m 29 and I don’t have a mother.’

Crimson’s life has been indelibly shaped by her magnetic, clever, self-absorbed mother. First, when she was nine and her mother fell in love with another man and left her marriage (and her children) for him. And now, as Crimson is about to turn 29 and single-parenting a three year old son (with all the messiness, chaos and love that that entails), her mother has – inconveniently, dramatically – declared she is dying. Crimson doesn’t quite believe it, neither does Marty, her brother. But, summoned to her bedside, they go, like moths to a flame. And her mother, it turns out, was not exaggerating. There is sickness, there is dying, there is a funeral. And most importantly, there is a will. A will that requests Marty and Crimson escort their mother’s body home to her family – well, the rest of her family – in England.

Crimson and Marty are entirely unprepared for the melodramatic and eccentric family that awaits them. Nor are they ready for the grief that is coming their way like a runaway horse, or the fact that their lives are going to change … which they will. They are also not prepared for the duck.

Sharp, spiky, dark, hilarious and irrepressible, Ordinary Funny Tragic is about learning to forgive the people you love most in the world for being flawed human beings. Just like you.

About the Author: Bridie Jabour is Head of Multimedia at Guardian Australia. She has previously worked as a journalist for NewsCorp and Fairfax, where she has reported on social affairs, politics and regional issues. She has worked in the Canberra press gallery and was a reporter for Brisbane Times after starting her career at the Gold Coast Bulletin in Queensland. Bridie writes commentary on feminism, inequality, and pop culture, and appears regularly on The Drum, Triple J and ABC Radio Sydney. She is the author of Trivial Grivances: On the contradictions, myths and misery of your 30s (HarperCollins, 2021)

01 Sep 2026
 

Ordinary Funny Tragic: The hilarious new novel from the author of Trivial Grievances by Bridie Jabour ISBN 9781460759509