Publication year 2025
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Grief, Race, The Past, Family, Self Discovery, Nation, Justice
Tags Food, Asian Literature
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.
The Fourth Daughter
The Friday Afternoon Club
The Friend
The Friendship War
The Garden of Love
The Garden Within
The Gathering
The Girl Who Drank the Moon
The Girl Who Fell From The Sky
The Glass Essay
The God of the Woods
The Golden Bowl
The Goldfinch
The Goldfish Boy
The Good Girl Effect
The Good Lie
The Good Thief
The Great Divorce
The Green Glass Sea
The Guitar
Publication year 2025
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Emotions/Behavior: Courage, Grief, Race, The Past, Family, Self Discovery, Nation, Justice
Tags Food, Asian Literature
Publication year 2024
Genre Autobiography / Memoir, Nonfiction
Themes Gratitude, Forgiveness, Grief, Memory, Mental Health, Sexual Identity, Coming of Age, Midlife, Family, Self Discovery, Social Class, Fame
Tags Biography, World History
Publication year 2018
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Friendship, Grief
Tags Animals, Modern Classic Fiction
The Friend by Sigrid Nunez is a postmodern novel reflecting on grief and loss. As revealed in the penultimate chapter, it is essentially a novel within a novel, charting the imagined relationship between the narrator and a dog left behind by a friend who recently killed himself. Through her relationship with the Great Dane, the unnamed narrator comes to terms with the unexpected and tragic loss, and she analyzes the complexity and emotional effects of... Read The Friend Summary
Publication year 2019
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Friendship, Family, Grief, Education, Power & Greed
Tags Realistic Fiction, Children`s Literature, Education, Education, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 1794
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Religion & Spirituality, Guilt, Memory, Grief, Nostalgia, Conflict, Apathy, Loyalty & Betrayal, Power & Greed, Good & Evil, Wins & Losses, Appearance & Reality
Tags Lyric Poem, Religion & Spirituality, World History, British Literature
Publication year 2023
Genre Book, Nonfiction
Themes Perseverance, Fear, Grief, Hope, Love, Mental Health, Self Discovery, Religion & Spirituality
Tags Self-Improvement, Psychology, Religion & Spirituality
Publication year 2007
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Grief, Memory, Death, Family
Tags Modern Classic Fiction, Irish Literature
The Gathering by Anne Enright is a novel about family history, grief, and the ways we learn to live with our pasts. Published in 2007, The Gathering was awarded the prestigious Man Booker Prize. The Gathering is Anne Enright’s fourth novel. Enright is the author of seven novels and is a major figure in contemporary Irish literature. This guide is based on the following 2007 Black Cat edition of The Gathering.Content Warning: This guide summarizes... Read The Gathering Summary
Publication year 2016
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Grief, Family, Memory
Tags Fantasy, Children`s Literature, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure
The Girl Who Drank the Moon is a 2016 fantasy novel for middle school readers by American author Kelly Barnhill. The story follows a young girl named Luna, who is accidentally enmagicked as a baby. As Luna grows, she struggles to recover important things she has lost: her memories, her mother, and her magic. With rich, lyrical language and gentle humor, Barnhill creates a fairytale-like world very different from ours, but one that faces similar... Read The Girl Who Drank the Moon Summary
Publication year 2010
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Grief, Coming of Age
Tags Realistic Fiction, Coming of Age, Dramatic Literature, Race & Racism, Crime & Law, Addiction & Substance Abuse, Depression & Suicide, Modern Classic Fiction, Historical Fiction
The Girl Who Fell from the Sky is Heidi Durrow’s debut novel. Published in 2010 by Oneworld Publications, the novel won the PEN/Bellweather Prize for Socially Engaged Fiction, an award that recognizes work by a previously unpublished author that explores a social issue. The Girl Who Fell from the Sky explores the impact of racism and loss on a young girl whose mother is a White woman from Denmark and whose father is a Black... Read The Girl Who Fell From The Sky Summary
Publication year 1994
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Grief
Tags Lyric Poem, Gender & Feminism, Relationships, Education, Education, Mental Illness, World History, Romance, Canadian Literature
Publication year 2024
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Grief, Femininity, Daughters & Sons, Marriage, Social Class, Justice
Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History, Historical Fiction
Publication year 1904
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Marriage, Loyalty & Betrayal, Forgiveness, Grief, Guilt, Loneliness, Love, Shame & Pride, Midlife, Future, The Past, Appearance & Reality, Fathers, Self Discovery, Social Class, Community, Power & Greed, Trust & Doubt, Truth & Lies
Tags Historical Fiction, Classic Fiction, American Literature, US History, World History
The Golden Bowl is a 1904 novel by Henry James. The novel explores the intricacies of marriage and affairs in the early 19th century through the affair of Amerigo and Charlotte, who were once in love but too poor to marry. Amerigo instead marries Maggie, and Charlotte marries Maggie’s father, a wealthy American museum curator. While Amerigo is at first happy with his new wife, the time she spends with her father creates an opportunity... Read The Golden Bowl Summary
Publication year 2013
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Order & Chaos, Grief, Art
Tags Arts & Culture, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Modern Classic Fiction
Donna Tartt’s 2013 novel, The Goldfinch, was a national best seller and won the Pulitzer Prize in 2014. It follows the life of Theo Decker from his early teens into his late twenties. The novel is told in five parts and begins when Theo is hiding out in a hotel room in Amsterdam as an adult. It moves back in time and finally makes a circle back to his adulthood, explaining the reason for his stay... Read The Goldfinch Summary
Publication year 2017
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Mental Health, Grief, Family
Tags Children`s Literature, Modern Classic Fiction, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Realistic Fiction, Mental Illness
The Goldfish Boy is a middle grade mystery novel by Lisa Thompson, published by Scholastic Inc. in 2017. It was Thompson’s debut novel and garnered critical acclaim. Upon publication, the novel became a national best seller and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. Thompson followed up on her debut novel with her third novella in 2021, The Graveyard Riddle, which follows the lives of characters from The Goldfish Boy. This study guide refers... Read The Goldfish Boy Summary
Publication year 2025
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Grief, Love, Trust & Doubt
Tags Romance, Contemporary Literature
Publication year 2021
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Trust & Doubt, Grief, Guilt, Revenge, Mental Health, Justice
Tags Horror & Suspense, Mystery & Crime Fiction, Psychological Fiction, Trauma & Abuse, Modern Classic Fiction
Publication year 2008
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Grief
Tags Mystery & Crime Fiction, World History, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Action & Adventure
Hannah Tinti's 2008 debut novel, The Good Thief, is the story of Ren, a one-handed orphan, and his life after being adopted by a pair of thieves in late-19th-century New England. The novel deals with themes of loss and redemption and explores the world of 19th-century medicine. The narrative moves quickly from a Catholic orphanage named after the patron saint of lost things, Saint Anthony, to an impoverished mining town, with stops at moonlit cemeteries... Read The Good Thief Summary
Publication year 1945
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Fear, Forgiveness, Love, Grief, Good & Evil, Religion & Spirituality, Trust & Doubt, Order & Chaos
Tags Symbolic Narrative, Christian, Religion & Spirituality, Fantasy, Philosophy, Philosophy, Classic Fiction
C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce, first published in serial form in 1945 and as a novel the following year, explores an unnamed narrator’s experiences in Heaven and Hell. Although Lewis is best known for his contribution to children’s literature in The Chronicles of Narnia series, he also wrote many works of adult fiction and nonfiction. Almost all of his published work is either explicitly or implicitly religious in nature; many of his nonfiction works are... Read The Great Divorce Summary
Publication year 2006
Genre Novel, Fiction
Themes Family, Friendship, Conflict, Grief, Loneliness, Coming of Age, Daughters & Sons, Fathers, Self Discovery, Community, War, Science & Technology
Tags Historical Fiction, World War II, Children`s Literature, Military & War, Realistic Fiction, World History
The Green Glass Sea is the 2006 children’s historical fiction and debut novel by American author Ellen Klages. Set in New Mexico in 1943, the story tells of 11-year-old Dewey Kerrigan, an outcast mechanical engineering prodigy who arrives to live with her father in the mysterious town of Los Alamos, New Mexico (also called the Hill). Dewey slowly learns that her father and several other scientists are working on a top-secret project called the “gadget.”... Read The Green Glass Sea Summary
Publication year 2002
Genre Poem, Fiction
Themes Grief, Music
Tags Lyric Poem