Grief

"The art of losing isn't hard to master," wrote poet Elizabeth Bishop. Perhaps she meant that we will all face loss at some point in our lives. In this collection, we have brought together texts that take up the universal experience of grief.

I Know This Much Is True

by Wally Lamb

Publication year 1998

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Mental Health, Family, Forgiveness, Grief, Guilt, Coming of Age, Siblings, Self Discovery

Tags Mental Illness, Psychological Fiction

Wally Lamb’s I Know This Much Is True centers on the illness of Thomas Birdsey, a middle-aged man who has had schizophrenia for the previous 20 years. Narrated by Thomas’s twin brother, Dominick, the novel opens with Thomas having left the group home where he lives and him cutting off his hand with a knife he took from his stepfather’s weapon collection. Thomas performs this action after reading a Bible verse that commands the reader... Read I Know This Much Is True Summary

I Let You Go

by Clare Mackintosh

Publication year 2014

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Family, Fate, Grief

Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, Horror & Suspense, Modern Classic Fiction

Published in 2011, I Let You Go is Clare Mackintosh’s debut novel. In 2016 it won Theakson’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. That same year, the French translation won Best International Novel at the Cognac Festival Prix du Polar Awards. In 2017, publisher Little, Brown said it had sold more than one million copies. Mackintosh spent 12 years in the police force before becoming a writer. She has said that a real-life... Read I Let You Go Summary

I'll Give You the Sun

by Jandy Nelson

Publication year 2014

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Art, Family, Conflict, Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Fear, Forgiveness, Grief, Guilt, Hate & Anger, Loneliness, Love, Memory, Shame & Pride, Aging, Childhood & Youth, Coming of Age, Sexual Identity, The Past, Death, Daughters & Sons, Fathers, Mothers, Siblings, Fate, Trust & Doubt, Truth & Lies, Wins & Losses

Tags Coming of Age, Magical Realism, Romance, Realistic Fiction, LGBTQ+, Grief & Death, Love & Sexuality, Modern Classic Fiction

I’ll Give You the Sun (2015) is an award-winning novel penned by Jandy Nelson about relationships, art, and destiny. It follows the story of twins Noah and Jude Sweetwine who once shared a close relationship but find themselves barely speaking to each other two years after their mother’s death.Jandy Nelson is an American author who writes young adult fiction. I’ll Give You the Sun is her second novel, which won numerous awards and honors, including... Read I'll Give You the Sun Summary

I Lost My Talk

by Rita Joe

Publication year 2007

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Race, Indigenous Identity, Forgiveness, Grief, Memory, Language, Childhood & Youth, Colonialism, Wins & Losses, Literature

Tags Lyric Poem, Education, Arts & Culture, Diversity, History of the Americas, Race & Racism, Trauma & Abuse, Colonialism & Postcolonialism

... Read I Lost My Talk Summary

Inkling

by Kenneth Oppel

Publication year 2021

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Grief, Family, Fathers, Siblings, Art

Tags Magical Realism, Children`s Literature, Humor, Arts & Culture, Fantasy

... Read Inkling Summary

In Love

by Amy Bloom

Publication year 2022

Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction

Themes Marriage, Love, Grief, Disability, Death

Tags Grief & Death, Health, Biography

... Read In Love Summary

In Memoriam

by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Publication year 1850

Genre Poem, Fiction

Themes Grief, Death, Conflict, Nostalgia, Perseverance

Tags Lyric Poem, Grief & Death, Victorian Period

Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s In Memoriam AHH explores the cosmic implications of the death of a college friend (his sister’s fiancé), poet Arthur Henry Hallam, who died quite unexpectedly in 1833 at the age of 22 most likely from a cerebral hemorrhage. The poem is among the most ambitiously conceived philosophical poems in the English language and a monument to the dynamics of how Christians themselves grapple with the thorny question of mortality. The work stands... Read In Memoriam Summary

Insomnia

by Stephen King

Publication year 1994

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Fear, Grief, Death, Appearance & Reality, Fate, Safety & Danger

Tags Horror & Suspense, Fantasy, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Science Fiction

... Read Insomnia Summary

In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried

by Amy Hempel

Publication year 1983

Genre Short Story, Fiction

Themes Friendship, Death, Grief, Guilt

Tags Life-Inspired Fiction, Grief & Death

American author Amy Hempel wrote the minimalist short story “In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried” in 1983. The story is dedicated to Jessica Wolfson, Hempel’s friend who died of a terminal illness. Originally published in TriQuarterly, the story appeared in her first short story collection, Reasons to Live, in 1985.The story is written in the first-person point of view, with minimal detail provided about the narrator. The story is presumed to take place... Read In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson Is Buried Summary

In The Shadow Of The Banyan

by Vaddey Ratner

Publication year 2012

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Grief, Coming of Age

Tags Historical Fiction, Life-Inspired Fiction, Social Class, Asian History, Politics & Government, Social Justice, Vietnam War, Military & War, Asian Literature, World History, Arts & Culture

In the Shadow of the Banyan (2012) is a historical fiction novel by the Cambodian American author Vaddey Ratner. Set in the 1970s during the Cambodian genocide, the book’s perspective is from Raami, a seven-year-old girl and the daughter of a minor prince whose family is among the millions of Cambodians persecuted by the Khmer Rouge. While Raami’s story hews very closely to Ratner’s own real-life experiences, the author chose to write a work of... Read In The Shadow Of The Banyan Summary

Invisible Girl

by Lisa Jewell

Publication year 2010

Genre Novel, Fiction

Themes Fear, Grief, Hate & Anger, Loneliness, Masculinity, The Past, Appearance & Reality, Family, Justice, Trust & Doubt, Truth & Lies, Self Discovery

Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction

... Read Invisible Girl Summary