Books about Death, Dying, Loss and Care
We asked our Good Life, Good Death, Good Grief networks for their recommended books on death, dying loss and care.
Novels with Death, Dying, Loss or Care as Key Themes
Autumn by Ali Smith
Elizabeth is Missing by Emma Healey
Where’d you go, Bernadette? by Maria Semple
Brooklyn by Colm Toibin
Death in Summer by William Trevor
The Good Mother by Sinéad Moriarty
Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Going Gently by David Nobbs
The Last Days of Rabbit Hayes by Anna McPartlin
The Healing Party by Micheline Lee
Missing Pieces by Laura Pearson
The Wisdom of Sally Red Shoes by Ruth Hogan
Death with Interruptions by Jose Saramago
Scar Tissue by Michael Ignatieff
The secret diary of Hendrick Groen, 83 1/4 Years Old by Hendrick Groen
A line made by walking by Sara Baume
Grief is the thing with feathers by Max Porter
The Spare Room by Helen Garner
Twelvemonth and a day by Christopher Rush
For Children
The Invisible String by Patrice Karst
Sad Book by Michael Rosen
Where Do They Go? by Julia Alvarez
Out to Sea by Helen Kellock
Ghosts by Raina Telgemeier
Teen/Young Adult Fiction
Ostrich Boys by Keith Gray
The Astonishing Colour of After by Emily X.R. Pan
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune
A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness
The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
Non-Fiction Books about Death, Dying, Loss or Care
Exploring Death
With the end in mind by Kathryn Mannix
Dying Well: Peace and Possibilities at End of Life by Ira Byock
Waiting for the Last Bus by Richard Holloway
From Here To Eternity: Traveling The World To Find The Good Death by Caitlin Doughty
Advice for Future Corpses by Sallie Tisdale
Grief Works by Julia Samuel
Dancing With Broken Bones by David Wendell Moller
The End: The Human Experience of Death by Bianca Nogrady
Finding hope when a child dies: What other cultures can teach us by Sukie Miller
How We Die by Sherwin Nuland
Natural Causes: Life, death and the illusion of control by Barbara Ehrenreich
Intimate Death by Marie de Hennezel
Sweet Sorrow by Mark Wakely
The Frighteners: Why We Love Monsters, Ghosts, Death & Gore by Peter Laws
Memoirs of Illness, Caring and Loss
The Iceberg: A Memoir by Marion Coutts
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
Everything Happens For A Reason (and other lies I’ve loved) by Kate Bowler
Remind Me Who I Am, Again by Linda Grant
The Art of Death by Edwidge Danticat
Grace and Grit by Ken Wilber
A Very Easy Death by Simone de Beauvoir
Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom
Gratitude by Oliver Sacks
The Last Act of Love by Cathy Rentzenbrink
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly by Jean-Dominique Bauby
Where Memories Go: Why Dementia Changes Everything by Sally Magnusson
Grief and Memoirs of Grief
It’s OK that you’re not OK by Megan Devine
The Grief Survival Guide by Jeff Brazier
You Are Not Alone by Cariad Lloyd
Sad Book by Michael Rosen
The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion
Blue Nights by Joan Didion
A Grief Observed by CS Lewis
H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald
To Travel Hopefully: Journal of a Death Not Foretold by Christopher Rush
Levels of Life by Julian Barnes
The Best Day The Worst Day by Donald Hall
Without by Donald Hall
And When Did You Last see Your Father? by Blake Morrison
Planning Ahead
Dying to know: bringing death to life by Andrew Anastasios
Lets Talk about Death over Dinner by Michael Hebb
Memoirs, Biographies, and Reflections of Medical, Funeral, and Death Professionals
Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande
Final Exam by Pauline Chen
In Shock: How Nearly Dying Made Me a Better Intensive Care Doctor by Rana Awdish
Forgive and remember: Managing Medical Failure by Charles L Bosk
The Best Death: How to die well by Sarah Winch
We All Know How This Ends by Louise Winter and Anna Lyons
The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch
Bodies in Motion and at Rest: On Metaphor and Mortality by Thomas Lynch
Ashes to Admin: The Caseload of a Council Funeral Officer by Evie King
The Trauma Cleaner by Sarah Krasnostein
All That Remains by Sue Black
Spiritual/Emotional/Religious
Staring at the Sun by Irvin Yalom
Being with Dying: Cultivating Compassion and Fearlessness in the Face of Death by Joan Halifax
Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul by Stephen Jenkinson
Reaching to Heaven by James Van Praagh
Rediscovering the Art of Dying by Nuala Kenny
After Death, Life! by Ruqaiyyah Waris Maqsood
This is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared by Alan Lew
