About the Book

“A wise and perceptive journey into grief and the ways we seek to assuage it. Incredibly powerful reading for all who have known, or who will inevitably know, loss.” —Lauren Elkin, author of Flâneuse and Art Monsters

In this lyrical and moving story of the world of Prolonged Grief, journalist Cody Delistraty reflects on his experience with loss and explores what modern science, history, and literature reveal about the nature of our relationship to grief and our changing attitudes toward its cure.

When Cody Delistraty lost his mother to cancer in his early 20s, he found himself unsure how to move forward. The typical advice was to move through the five stages, achieve closure, get back to work, go back to normal. So begins a journey into the new frontiers of grief, where Delistraty seeks out the researchers, technologists, therapists, marketers, and communities around the world who may be able to cure the pain of loss in novel ways. From the neuroscience of memory deletion to book prescriptions, laughter therapy, psilocybin, and Breakup Bootcamp, what ultimately emerges is not so much a cure as a fresh understanding of what living with grief truly means. 

As Delistraty created his own ad hoc treatment plan, the American Psychiatric Association and the World Health Organization gave extended, disruptive grief an official name: Prolonged Grief Disorder. A diagnosis, based on meeting several symptoms and contingencies, has opened innovative avenues of treatment and an important conversation about a debilitating form of grief, but it has also opened a debate as to whether this form of grief, no matter how severe and unrelenting, is best approached medically at all.

Braiding deep, emotional resonance with sharp research and historical insight, Delistraty places his own experience in dialogue with great writers and thinkers throughout history who have puzzled over this eternal question: how might we best face loss?

Critical Praise

“In The Grief Cure, Cody Delistraty keenly weaves his own grief into a broader fabric full of curiosity and sorrow, investigating the numerous ways people have tried to heal or move through grief. Delistraty’s voice is insightful and attuned to nuance, exploring the dynamics of grief hierarchies and public performances, always returning to the crucial question that propels his inquiry: When is pain a problem to be solved, and when is it simply part of being alive?” — Leslie Jamison, author of Splinters and The Empathy Exams

“Cody Delistraty is a gifted young writer and reporter who generously lets us into his own experience of grieving, and takes us on a fascinating journey through old and new ways of dealing with loss.” — Jess Walter, author of The Cold Millions and Beautiful Ruins 

“With openhearted curiosity and wry honesty, Cody Delistraty elegantly anatomizes his heartbreak over the death of his mother. The result is a wise, compulsively readable, and genuinely moving exploration of grief—which comes for all of us, if we happen to be human.” — Claire Dederer, author of Monsters

"A wise and perceptive journey into grief and the ways we seek to assuage it. I was captivated from first to last; it felt incredibly important to read it all in one go, to keep it close. It is exceptionally po?werful reading for all who have known, or who will inevitably know, loss.” — Lauren Elkin, author of Flâneuse and Art Monsters

“I wish this book existed decades ago, when I thought I’d never recover from my mother’s unexpected death. With great sensitivity and rigor, Cody Delistraty appeals to the heart and the brain to demystify one of life’s most isolating experiences and show a way forward. With this moving, thought-provoking book as my companion, young me would have felt a lot less lonely and a lot more hopeful.” — Kate Bolick, author of Spinster

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Product Details

• ISBN: 9780063256842
• ISBN 10: 0063256843
• Imprint: Harper
• On Sale: 06/25/2024
• Trimsize: 5.500 in (w) x 8.250 in (h) x 0.720 in (d)
• Pages: 208
• List Price: $27.99
• BISAC1 : FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS / Death, Grief, Bereavement
• BISAC2 : PSYCHOLOGY / Grief & Loss
• BISAC3 : BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoirs