"It's beautiful only because there's an end" - Ageing and death in Iain Reid's novel We Spread

Abstract

Iain Reid's novel We Spread follows Penny, a painter, who is reluctant to accept her ageing and longs for more time to live. However, by becoming the master of her own narrative, she lets go of her wish to have more time in life and accepts her mortality, regarding it as the gift of life. The novel examines themes of growing old, loss of identity, agency and cognitive decline through psychological, artistic and scientific metaphors, suggesting that ageing is an irreversible, natural process that ends with a necessary, libearting end.