Summary

The short story “The North London Book of the Dead” by Will Self begins with the narrator remembering his mother’s death. The narrator talks about being at the hospital when his mother died of cancer and expresses his complex feelings caused by her death. 

At first, the narrator feels depressed after his mother’s death but soon begins to dream about her. Her embarrassing behavior in his dreams makes the narrator feel awkward. A few months after his mother’s death, the narrator stops dreaming about her but thinks he can see her in the street. Eventually, the narrator comes to terms with her death.

Ten months after the mother’s death, the narrator meets her in Crouch End, an area of North London. He is shocked, but his mother reveals that she is, indeed, dead...