THE SOLO HONEYMOON

When her fiancé died a few weeks before their wedding, this young Canadian lawyer took the honeymoon trip by herself.

Many readers will be familiar with the story of Murphy, who posted TikToks of her solo honeymoon that reached the upper limits of virality, attracting the attention of legacy media as well. She has collaborated here with Witter, whose credentials as a cowriter include an impressive raft of bestsellers, to tell the whole story of her romance with Devon O’Grady and his sudden death in her arms. It began when she showed up to start an internship at the Newfoundland law firm where he worked and quickly progressed past workplace friendship to raging crush to a “naked, sweaty, and disheveled” hotel-room proposal. Murphy’s candor about the less picture-perfect moments of both the relationship and its tragic aftermath are mostly endearing, with just a few touches of did-we-really-need-to-know-this; but the most important thing this book needed to accomplish—create a vivid and endearing portrait of Devon for posterity—is done to a tee. He was a bubbly, quirky nerd who wore a three-piece suit to work every day, ate raw green peppers like apples, went to bed at 8 p.m. so he could be out running at 4 a.m., owned and rotated six pairs of eyeglasses—and, most importantly, was one of the all-time sweetie pies, with a kind word, a nickname, and plenty of time for everybody. Once we see who he is, we begin to fathom her unfathomable loss in a more immediate way than sections describing her experience of grief and despair in various far-flung locations could ever do, though these are generally pulled off with heart and humor. “I had my big day in St. James’s Park and Buckingham Palace, but then I backslid into crying. This wasn’t Eat Pray Love; it was Cry Mope Chicken Wings. But that’s the reality of grief.” She’s right about that. Abundantly illustrated with dozens of photographs.

A moving account of a brave response to a particularly cruel twist of fate, deeper and truer than TikTok could ever tell.