Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death and Surviving - Hardcover

Samuel, Julia

3.98

1,811 ratings by Goodreads

9780241270745: Grief Works: Stories of Life, Death and Surviving

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 024127074X ISBN 13: 9780241270745

Publisher: Penguin Life, 2017

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A Sunday Times Top 10 Bestseller

Death affects us all. Yet it is still the last taboo in our society, and grief is still profoundly misunderstood...

In Grief Works we hear stories from those who have experienced great love and great loss - and survived. Stories that explain how grief unmasks our greatest fears, strips away our layers of protection and reveals our innermost selves.

Julia Samuel, a grief psychotherapist, has spent twenty-five years working with the bereaved and understanding the full repercussions of loss. This deeply affecting book is full of psychological insights on how grief, if approached correctly, can heal us. Through elegant, moving stories, we learn how we can stop feeling awkward and uncertain about death, and not shy away from talking honestly with family and friends.

This extraordinary book shows us how to live and learn from great loss.

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Review:

A profoundly moving book by an extraordinary storyteller - Julia Samuel describes her patients' stories of loss with great sensitivity and fascinating psychological insight. Essential for anyone who has ever experienced grief, or wanted to comfort a bereaved friend (Helen Fielding, bestselling author of 'Bridget Jones' Diary')

Fascinating. A wise and compassionate book full of insight and understanding that would help anyone experiencing grief, or those surrounding them. I am so glad this book exists. (Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of 'The Last Act of Love')

What an amazing book! I absolutely LOVE it. Intelligent, empathetic, modest, funny, and learned - it's an amazing feat. (Rabbi Julia Neuberger)

A wonderfully important and transforming book - lucid, consoling and wise. (William Boyd, bestselling author of 'Sweet Caress')

Julia Samuel's wise, compassionate voice speaks out on every page of this exceptionally moving book offering courage and hope: emotions that are sometimes inaudible and and unattainable to those who grieve. Her exceptional understanding of the way human beings think/love/mourn makes Grief Works an invaluable guide to understanding the complex emotions around death. Through the inspirational stories of those many people she has helped, both the dying and the surviving, Julia Samuel dissipates fear and demonstrates the extraordinary resilience of humankind. (Juliet Nicolson, author of 'A House Full of Daughters')

The stories of [Julia's] clients are set out with such eloquence, sensitivity and insight and I learned something from each one of them. I liked her honesty about how difficult it can be for a therapist to find a way into communication with someone who is in the throes of grief, and how much the therapist can doubt herself. And the way she teases out the slow, arduous process of recovery is truly heartening. I don't often read a book which offers such direct and generous support. (Helen Dunmore)

The book will allow us to stop feeling awkward and uncertain about death - and why we should talk honestly about grief (Guardian)

A moving guide to dealing with grief - a rigorous, researched but above all readable study of how to deal with death, dying and grieving. The book is self-help at its most philosophical, practical and profound... Anyone who has every struggled with the obscure, muddled, vulnerable, uncertain, fearful, elemental process of bereavement, or facing their own mortality, should find this book of help

(Helen Davies Sunday Times)

This invaluable guide gets to the heart of grief, showing how a simple act like making a meal for someone who is bereaved, or sending a card with memories of the deceased, can make all the difference (Sunday Express S Magazine)

Psychotherapist Julia Samuel's case studies provide vital and compelling insights into bereavement (...) fascinating and affecting (Observer)

From the Back Cover:

'Julia Samuel describes her patients' stories of loss with great sensitivity and fascinating psychological insight. Essential for anyone who has ever experienced grief, or wanted to comfort a bereaved friend' Helen Fielding, author of Bridget Jones' Diary

'A wise and compassionate book full of insight and understanding' Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love

'Intelligent, empathetic, modest, funny and learned' Rabbi Julia Neuberger

'Her exceptional understanding of the way human beings think/love/mourn makes Grief Works an invaluable guide to understanding the complex emotions around death' Juliet Nicolson, author of A House Full of Daughters

'I don't often read a book which offers such direct and generous support.' Helen Dunmore, author of Exposure

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