11 Poignant Books About Grief and Loss

A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How to Do

Author: Pete Fromm

Taz and Marnie are just starting their lives together, working on their fixer-upper in Montana and anticipating the birth of their first child. When Marnie dies in childbirth, Taz is consumed by grief–and left to raise his newborn daughter without her mother. Taz struggles to navigate a world he no longer recognizes, controlled by the needs of the baby, floating through a fog of exhaustion, love, and hopelessness.

A Job You Mostly Won’t Know How to Do follows Taz’s first two years with his daughter, supported by a small cast of characters who support, push, back away, and push again in a uniquely stoic, Montana way.

Fromm’s writing is emotionally resonant; expansive when it needs to be, but sometimes staccato and sharp. Reading it feels like grieving, while fighting debilitating exhaustion. This small story brought me to tears more than once–something that doesn’t happen often.

The Last Story of Mina Lee

Author: Nancy Jooyoun Kim

When Margot can’t get ahold of her mother, Mina, in Los Angeles, she travels from Seattle and finds her mother dead in her apartment. Determined to find out what happened, Margot begins digging in Mina’s past, from her immigration from Korea to her life as a single, undocumented mother, to the mystery of Margot’s father.

Told in alternating narratives (with Mina’s story being the most compelling), this is an intriguing mother/daughter story. Margot’s grief takes different shapes as she learns more about her mother and comes to terms with long-held resentments.

Clap When You Land

Author: Elizabeth Acevedo

Camino (Cami) and Yahaira (Yaya) are sisters, but they don’t know it until their father dies in a plane crash. As the teens grieve, they also must come to terms with the reality of life without their father. Cami, in the Dominican Republic, dodges a predatory pimp who wants her in his service, while Yaya, in New York City, tries to reconcile the father she loved with this new information about him. When Yaya takes off for DR, the two girls have to decide: will they hold on to resentment, or will they be family?

I don’t read much poetry, so I’m often hesitant about novels in verse. This, though, is excellent. Try the audio if you’re also not sure; the language is lyrical but not overtly poetic.

Beach Read

Author: Emily Henry

January has reluctantly moved into the beach house her dad left her after his death. The house was a surprise–as was his second life she never knew about. Now she’s trying to clean out his house, get over her writer’s block, and deal with her grief. Discovering that her neighbor is her college nemesis, Augustus (Gus)–who also happens to be an award-winning author–isn’t helping. Until they make a deal to switch genres and rivalry leads to romance.

The banter and fast pace of this book make this a lighter take on grief. The issues that both January and Gus were dealing with made their closeness feel realistic and not too fluffy.

The Opposite of Fate

Author: Alison McGhee

After 18 months in a coma, Mallie Williams has woken up, only to learn several shocking things: 1) She was attacked. 2) She was pregnant and had a child. 3) The world and family she knew is no longer the same.

As Mallie comes to grip with what happened to her and the decisions that were made on her behalf, she starts a journey to come back to herself. Her loved ones, as well, struggle to come to grips with the choices they made and the choices they couldn’t prevent.

McGhee perfectly creates her small cast of characters who do their best and create family in an awful situation. The grief in this one is a little different; each character grieves their loss of innocence, their hopes for the future, and even their beliefs about themselves.

The Other Americans

Author: Laila Lalami

The Other Americans is a complicated narrative focused on the hit-and-run killing of Driss Guerraoui, a Moroccan immigrant who was crossing street one evening near his business. As his family grieves his death and learns truths about his life, the police investigate what happened.

Told from multiple points of view–Driss’ family, the investigators, neighboring business owners, and Driss himself–Lalami covers a lot of ground. From family tensions and expectations to prejudices, her story is subtle and nuanced. Learn more

Harry’s Trees

Author: Jon Cohen

When 34-year-old Harry’s wife is unexpectedly killed, the Forest Service employee retreats to the trees to grieve and atone for his role in her death. There, he meets a young girl and a mother who are also grieving the loss of their father and husband. The girl, Oriana, is guided by her belief in magic and fairy tales, and is convinced that she and Harry have a mission. Only by completing it will they be pulled up from the depths of their grief.

Cohen uses writes with a lilting fairy tale structure that was grounded in a healthy amount of skepticism and realism that made it work. Despite its themes of grief, I found this to be an uplifting delight.

Say Say Say

Author: Lila Savage

Say Say Say follows a 20-something artist-turned-caregiver who takes a job in the home of a couple, caring for Jill, who suffered a brain injury in an accident. Jill’s husband, Bryn, is attentive and loving, but burned out by the duties and realities of this new life with Jill. In her caregiving position, Ella is brought closely, intensely, almost claustrophobically into the lives of Jill and Bryn, causing her to examine her own role and feelings.

This meditation on the strange intimacy and separateness of the caregiver role was interesting. Ella is an observer of Bryn’s devotion to his wife, while he also deals with losing her while she still lives.

Transcendent Kingdom

Author: Yaa Gyasi

Gifty is a neuroscience PhD candidate at Stanford, studying reward-seeking behavior and addiction in mice. Driven by her grief for her brother, Nana, and a need to understand the addiction that killed him, Gifty throws herself into the science. At the same time, she grapples with the faith of her youth. The promised salvation hasn’t seemed to help her depressed mother, in bed since she arrived from Alabama.

A thoughtful look at the life of Ghanaian immigrants in Alabama, as well as an examination of grief, faith, and science.

The Friend

Author: Sigrid Nunez

This strangely compelling National Book Award winner is less a story about a woman’s healing relationship with the Great Dane left to her by her deceased friend than it is a meditation on grief. The friend and mentor, who committed suicide and left no note, looms large in her thoughts and memories. The snippets with the dog are charming, but they are not the focus.

The deceased friend has few redeeming qualities, making the reader wonder about the narrator’s attachment to him, but part of the point seems to be the nature of suicide and the impossibility of resolution for those left behind.

The Great Believers

Author: Rebecca Makkai

Set in two time periods, the first in 1980s Chicago and the second in 2015 Paris, The Great Believers throws readers into the thick of–and the aftermath of–the 1980s AIDS crisis. From a group of young men in Chicago’s gay community to the people they left behind, mourning the loss of so many, this is grief on a large scale.

Makkai masterfully juxtaposes the AIDS crisis with several other tragic events, including world wars and terrorist attacks. These, as well as a thread about historical art, are brilliantly woven together to highlight the generations of people and talents lost to these devastations.

For more on this book, check out 11 Things to Know About The Great Believers: The Story of the Story