Next Chapter: Grief (Fiction)
Grief is a universal emotion which we experience throughout our lives. Here is a list of fiction books which explore the myriad ways we respond to grief and, in turn, may provide a path for our own journeys. Created by librarians at The Seattle Public Library. (September 2023) Annotations from NoveList, unless otherwise attributed. (Created by the Older Adults Program Manager, September 2023)
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My Heart
An intimate work of autobiographical fiction by the author of Sarajevo Blues traces the experiences of a writer who in the wake of a life-risking heart attack reevaluates his past as a member of a Bosnian war refugee family.
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I Am Homeless If This Is Not My Home
A daring, meditative exploration of love and death, passion and grief, and what it means to be haunted by the past, both by history and the human heart.
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Someday, Maybe
After her husband, the greatest love of her life, commits suicide, a young woman finds the strength to move on with the help of her tight-knit Nigerian family and happy memories of the man she'll never forget.
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The Book of Form and Emptiness
Thirteen-year-old Benny Oh starts to hear voices after the death of his musician father. The voices belong to the things in his house such as a sneaker, a broken Christmas ornament, a piece of wilted lettuce. At first, Benny tries to ignore them, but soon the voices drive him to seek sanctuary in the silence of a large public library, where objects are quieter.
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The Two Lives of Lydia Bird
A woman grieving the loss of her fiancé finds herself swapping back and forth between parallel lives, including one in which her first love has survived and another involving a new person who is asking her to move on.
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All My Rage
A family extending from Pakistan to California, deals with generations of young love, old regrets, and forgiveness.
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Banyan Moon
Follows three generations of Vietnamese American women reeling from the death of their matriarch, revealing the family's inherited burdens, buried secrets and unlikely love stories.
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The House of Broken Angels
Across one bittersweet weekend in their San Diego neighborhood, revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of family patriarch Miguel "Big Angel" De La Cruz and his mother, and recounting the many tales that have passed into family lore.
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We Are A Haunting
A debut, coming-of-age novel that mixes magical realism and the Southern Gothic and follows three generations of East New Yorkers struggling to maintain a connection to their history.
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Black Cake
Eleanor Bennett's death leaves behind a puzzling inheritance for her two children, Byron and Benny: a traditional Caribbean black cake, made from a family recipe with a long history, and a voice recording.
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