5 Wonderful Books About Grief

When dealing with grief, even a list of a thousand books might fall short.

This small selection is presented in the hope that it contains something to provide solace, or at least point the way towards something that does.

Grief is the Thing With Feathers by Max Porter This poetic novella features a giant crow moving in with a bereaved family after the mother’s death. Through this semi-allegory, Porter captures how loss disrupts a family, stretching space and logic in surreal ways. Narrated by two boys, their father, and a shapeshifting crow, it is a funny, frightening, and loving exploration of magical thinking that offers fierce comfort by illuminating pain.

Sad Book by Michael Rosen Written about the sudden death of Rosen’s son Eddie, this concise book shows how grief’s complexity can be conveyed through simple words and images. “Who is sad?” Rosen writes. “Sad is anyone. It comes along and finds you.” Though not strictly a children’s book, it acknowledges how deeply grief can resonate with the child within us. Quentin Blake’s grey wash illustrations create a space for sadness to breathe.

You Are Not Alone: A New Way to Grieve by Cariad Lloyd Lloyd’s book draws on excerpts from her award-winning podcast “Griefcast,” featuring those who have lost loved ones, and her own experience of grief after her father died when she was 15. This outward-reaching guide is filled with humility and humour, offering additional resources and a “handrail through the grief fog.”

Time Lived, Without Its Flow by Denise Riley Sixteen months after her son’s sudden death, Riley describes being “superficially ‘fine’” but with “an unseen crater blown into my head.” Using diary-like intervals, Riley brings her poetic skill and formal grace to this tender, philosophical account of the “altered condition of life” and the “stopping of time” following the death of a loved one.

Late Fragments: Everything I Want to Tell You (About this Magnificent Life) by Kate Gross Diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer at 34, Gross wrote this beautiful memoir-cum-commonplace book as a way to articulate her grief for the things she would not live to see and as a legacy for those she left behind. It is a clear-eyed and extraordinarily uplifting book.