Books on grief
In honour of Dying Matters Awareness Week, which takes place each May, this month’s reading list is a collection of books that have accompanied readers through the most challenging of times.
From beloved classics to graphic novels, these ten titles offer an exploration into the complexities of grief, where each personal story bravely offers its own unique truth on a universal experience.
Nothing Belongs to You
Nathacha Appanah
An immersive and emotionally powerful tale about grieving a partner, a country and the past, Nathacha Appanah’s short novel is a modern classic about trauma and identity, spanning different timelines.
Fun Home
Alison Bechdel
Considered a game-changing work for comics and memoirs alike, Bechdel’s graphic novel intertwines themes of grief, sexual orientations, generational gaps, and dysfunctional families with her customary dark humour.
Faith, Hope and Carnage
Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan
Drawn out of over forty hours of conversation between Nick Cave and Seán O’Hagan, the book reframes Cave’s at times tragic biography and considers the transformational power of grief, art and love.
The Year of Magical Thinking
Joan Didion
In this exquisitely personal yet universal modern classic, written in the aftermath of the death of her husband, Didion explores the necessary irrationalities that come with elaborating grief.
Dancing at the Pity Party
Author Name
This candid graphic novel is part cancer memoir and part collection of all the memories of all the post-death firsts, told from the perspective of a daughter grappling with her mother’s terminal illness.
All Down Darkness Wide: A Memoir
Séan Hewitt
A luminous meditation on trauma, queer identity and language, Hewitt’s memoir is at once a coming of age story, a devastating romance and a quest for renewal set between Liverpool and Gothenburg.
H Is for Hawk
Helen Macdonald
When Macdonald’s father, a photojournalist with a passion for falconry, died suddenly in 2007, she purchased a goshawk to help her work through her grief.
Now also a motion picture that can be borrowed from Hackney Libraries!
Grief Is the Thing with Feathers
Max Porter
Porter’s celebrated debut tells of a father and two children whose mother has died, and their journey to healing. Elegant and rich with literary nods, it plays with different genres and reads like a spell.
Michael Rosen’s Sad Book
Michael Rosen
Rosen’s book about losing his son Eddie is a wonderful resource to initiate conversations about grief with children. It manages to express complicated feelings with simplicity and openness.
Crying in H Mart
Michelle Zauner
Born out of an essay written in the wake of the death of her mother, this bestselling memoir is by the guitarist for Japanese Breakfast. Food is the doorway to discussing loss, memory and growing up Korean-American.