Nonfiction & Self-Help Grief Books
For those who want to understand what grief does to the body, the brain, and the heart, these books offer knowledge, validation, and gentle guidance.
“The Grieving Brain,” by Mary-Frances O’Connor
Drawing on her work as a neuroscientist and grief researcher, O’Connor explores how the brain copes with loss. The book weaves together science and empathy, helping readers understand why grief feels so overwhelming — and why that’s completely natural.
“It’s OK That You’re Not OK,” by Megan Devine
Devine is a psychotherapist who survived the sudden, accidental loss of her partner. In this compassionate and practical guide, she challenges cultural myths about grief and offers space to feel what you feel, without needing to fix or move past it.
“Bearing the Unbearable,” by Joanne Cacciatore
Cacciatore is a bereaved mother, a grief counselor, a trauma researcher, and a Zen priest. Drawing from both personal tragedy and decades of professional experience, the book offers 52 short chapters, each a meditative reflection that invites the reader to sit with sorrow and discover how grief can deepen connection, compassion, and meaning.
“The Art of Losing,” edited by Kevin Young
This widely praised anthology brings together poems and essays on grief from a diverse range of voices. It’s a beautifully curated companion for difficult days, offering space, sorrow, and solace across many traditions.
Memoirs About Grief
There can be profound comfort in connecting over shared experiences, especially when those experiences are as powerful as the loss of a loved one. These memoirs offer honest and unflinching reflections from those who have lived through loss, reminding us that even in the depths of sorrow, we are not alone.
“The Year of Magical Thinking” by Joan Didion
Winner of the National Book Award, Didion’s memoir follows her through the sudden loss of her husband. Her spare, stunning prose captures the disorientation and persistence of grief.
“A Grief Observed” by C.S. Lewis
Published anonymously at first, this deeply personal account of Lewis’s grief after his wife’s death remains a classic in spiritual literature. Through philosophical inquiry and raw emotional questioning, it offers a timeless look at love and loss.
“When Breath Becomes Air” by Paul Kalanithi
A neurosurgeon diagnosed with terminal cancer at 36, Kalanithi’s memoir confronts mortality with grace and intellect. His reflections on life, death, and meaning became a New York Times bestseller and a modern meditation on the fragility of time.
Fiction Books About Grief & Loss
Fiction offers a kind of gentle escape, lifting us, even briefly, from the heaviness of reality. At the same time, imagined characters moving through familiar losses can soften the edges of grief and lend a poetic shape to what is often beyond words.
“Lincoln in the Bardo” by George Saunders
This Man Booker Prize–winning novel blends historical fact with the supernatural to explore Abraham Lincoln’s profound grief after the death of his son, Willie. Set in a surreal liminal space between life and death, the story captures the emotional chaos of mourning while offering a deeply imaginative meditation on love, loss, and letting go.
“The Friend” by Sigrid Nunez
Winner of the National Book Award, this novel follows a woman mourning the suicide of a close friend while forming an unexpected bond with the Great Dane he left to her. Through reflections on grief, literature, and companionship, Nunez explores how healing sometimes arrives in surprising forms.
“Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson
Written for young readers but beloved across generations, this Newbery Medal winner tells the story of friendship and sudden loss through the eyes of a child. It’s a tender, heartbreaking novel that doesn’t shy away from the reality of grief.
Poetry About Grief & Loss
When language feels too heavy or too distant, poetry can offer something closer to breath. These collections hold space for sorrow without trying to solve it.
“The Carrying” by Ada Limón
Winner of the National Book Critics Circle Award, this collection navigates illness, loss, and hope with clarity and grace. Limón’s poems are grounded in daily life but reach toward something larger—an ache, an answer, a breath.
“Devotions” by Mary Oliver
This sweeping selection from Oliver’s lifetime of work is filled with reverence for the natural world and quiet moments of grief and joy. Her poetry invites readers to pause, look around, and feel.
“To Bless the Space Between Us” by John O’Donohue
Written by the late Irish poet and philosopher, this collection of blessings is filled with warmth and spiritual presence. O’Donohue offers gentle language for thresholds of all kinds—including loss, letting go, and remembrance.
“The Poems of Emily Dickinson” by Emily Dickinson
Dickinson’s poetry, often centered around death, the soul, and eternity, invites quiet contemplation. Her brief, elliptical verses have long resonated with readers navigating grief and the mystery of what comes after.
