First published 2012
Meghan O'Rourke is thirty years old when her mother dies on Christmas night. Though illness had brought them closer and prepared her for the inevitable, nothing readies her for the crushing sorrow that follows. Living in a demanding city filled with expectations, Meghan struggles to find relief from her pain. She has no one to share her burden except her therapist, whose sessions she desperately awaits. Her mother's presence lingers everywhere. She feels her in the wind moving through hedge leaves, sits with her while drinking tea with friends, finds her in carefree childhood memories and in the color purple. Month by month through an unforgettable year, Meghan discovers how isolating grief can be, especially in Western society where collective rituals for life's major transitions have disappeared. Her journey reveals the loneliness of suffering in a culture that offers no communal ways to process loss and move forward together.
Genres: grief, memoir, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: personal-journey, slice-of-life
Setting: Western Society
Period: Christmas
304 pages · Paperback · Giunti