Top ten books on grief
We often turn to art to help us process, understand our grief. This is a list of books that I’ve found helpful, sometimes cathartic, often illuminating and feeling seen.
The World Without Us – M. Juchau – A mother navigates life after the death of her child, grief seeped with portent of environmental decay in her small rural town.
A Year of Magical Thinking – J. Didion – A chronicle of the surreal year following her husband’s sudden death.
A Guide Through Grief – E. Shaw - Drawing from personal loss, Edwina offers a compassionate creative toolkit for walking beside grief rather than fleeing from it.
Ducks, Newsburyport – L. Ellmann - Through a torrent of inner monologue, a mother mourns her own mother’s death, her grief permeating memory, motherhood and the mundane.
On Grief and Grieving – E. Kubler-Ross – A guide that maps loss through the five stages of grief, while affirming that mourning is deeply personal and nonlinear.
Grief Is a Thing with Feathers – M. Porter - After a mother’s death, a father and his sons are visited by a mythic crow who disrupts, comforts and ultimately guides them through the chaos of grief.
The Burrow – M. Cheng - In the wake of their baby’s death, a family is trapped in emotional stasis, compounded by the Covid lockdown. To help rediscover connection and help their surviving child, they buy a rabbit.
Translations – J. Abdu – Aliyah’s grief for a lost father, for friendship, threads through her search for belonging, healing and emotional refuge, when she moves with her daughter to rural Australia.
When Things are Alive They Hum – H. Bent - Grief of an expected death, particularly if it’s the death of your sister, is worse than the real thing.
The Love That Remains – S. Francis – The grief of mourning for a family Susan has never known is compounded by the loss of her partner who seems to be someone entirely different to who she knew.
What about the books you’ve read on grief?