Seven Books That Understand Your Grief

When it comes to funerals, I’m a coward. I haven’t attended one for a family member in 25 years, even though in that time, at least one relative has died annually—from cancer, from gun wounds, from a global contagion. I have had to find other ways of mourning. Today, I frequently navigate bereavement in a quieter, private state—and I use literature to help me get there.

It’s not just me: Most people I know have been in the purgatory of grief for years now. The most apparent type is for the 6.5 million people who have died across the world during the pandemic. Others are lamenting a taxing breakup, losing their home, a recession, or the destruction of the environment. For some, the feeling of mourning changed as new forms of collective loss came coupled with an inability to gather in person. But when distance denied people their traditional funeral rites, they found new rituals that could guide them, like I did.

One of these can be reading, which offers a way to share, process,