Episode
Nearly Departed: Love, Loss and Literary Romance, with Lucas Oakeley
- Podcast
- The Book Club Review
- Published
- Feb 15, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2804
- Processing state
not_requested
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Summary
Valentine’s-ish Literary Romance: Lucas Oakley on Nearly Departed, Boys Book Club & love stories that stay with you long after reading Join Kate and Lucas Oakeley for this Valentine's-ish episode of The Book Club Review, recorded at Housmans Bookshop in King's Cross. We're exploring literary fiction where love takes centre stage, but the reward is complexity rather than a guaranteed happy ending. Nearly Departed manages to combine the enjoyable tropes of Rom Com with the thoughtful exploration through writing that we associate with literary fiction. We explore how Lucas’s real-life experiences—witnessing a fatal cycling accident and his father's first wife dying young—shaped the book's exploration of love, loss, and second chances, and the art of balancing humour with heartbreak while playing with rom-com tropes. Of course, we’ve got plenty of recommendations for love stories with emotional depth, including Lily King's Writers & Lovers , Andrew Kaufman's All My Friends Are Superheroes , Kazuo Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day , David Nicholls' Sweet Sorrow , Douglas Stuart's John of John , and hot-book-of-the-moment Wuthering Heights . We’re also discussing Boys Book Club, the organization Lucas has co-founded to encourage men to read and talk about books. What makes a great book club pick for an all-male book club? We’re going to be finding out. We’ve even got Valentine's recipe – rigatoni with a long-simmered ‘Sunday sauce’ – and a couple of cocktail ideas. All in all, the perfect ingredients for a literary Valentine’s weekend. Become a member of The Book Club Review community Join The Book Club Review community on Patreon for ad-free listening, extra episodes, Kate’s weekly reading diaries, the opportunity to connect with other listeners in the c…