The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford

Sharp, expansive, and polyphonic, a propulsive novel rendered with the wit and care present in all of Thompson-Spires’ work – RAVEN LEILANI, author of Luster
That Nafissa Thompson-Spires can conjure so much atmosphere in so few pages is both a feat and a mystery. From oil money to the rodeo, electric love and sudden death, Oklahoma positively blooms with violence and mercy alike. The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford unfolds with rare economy and force – KILEY REID, author of Come and Get It
Nafissa Thompson-Spires is a one of one. The Four Wives and Five Deaths of Richard Milford presents her humor and heart at full tilt. A beautiful novel that makes you smile even as it hurts – NANA KWAME ADJEI-BRENYAH, author of Chain-Gang All-Stars
Electric… a brilliant distillation of front-of-mind happenings—think, cults of personality, capitalism run amok in politics, and rampant societal distrust—structured like a stupefying line dance. In her uniquely powerful, humorous manner, Thompson-Spires takes on the interdependent clash of the traditional and the newfangled in this gobsmackingly excellent novel * The Center for Fiction 2026 First Novel Prize *
Line by line, The Four Wives And Five Deaths of Richard Milford is mesmerizing, tautly written, and wickedly funny. A truly enjoyable work – JAMI ATTENBERG, author of A Reason to See You Again
A deeply satisfying novel that cracles as much with Thompson-Spires’s singular intelligence as it does with mystery. I loved this ode to wild women, small towns, wily rumors and Black humor so much. A must-read – ANGELA FLOURNOY, author of The Wilderness
Thompson-Spires, a wondrously deft short story writer, has now given us a first novel that, while slim, manages to pack in an epic’s worth of lives, histories, and mysteries. This is a deliciously sweet and sour tour-de-force – KELLY LINK, author of The Book of Love

Nafissa Thompson-Spires is the author of the award-winning, National Book Award longlisted short story collection, Heads of the Colored People. She earned a doctorate in English from Vanderbilt University and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of Illinois. Her short fiction and essays have appeared in The Paris Review Daily, New York Magazine’s “The Cut,”, The Root, The White Review, Ploughshares, 400 Souls: A Community History of African America 1619-2019, and The 1619 Project, among other publications. She is the recipient of a 2024 United States Artists Grant and a 2019 Whiting Award.

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