Hello Grief

The author of the bestselling I Used to Have a Plan is back with more balm for the soul, offering advice, inspiration, and solace for everyone who has lost something or someone special.

After losing her mother to cancer, Alessandra Olanow was overwhelmed by the sadness and uncertainty she felt each day—the shifting tide of emotions that everyone who has suffered loss experiences in their own unique way.

In this wise and intimate book, the artist and writer draws insights from her personal loss and also her training as an end-of-life doula to explore the complex, heart-rending process of grief. Olanow chronicles her journey through pain and how she learned to bear a sorrow that will never leave her. In spare but incisive writing and more than 75 full-color drawings, she shares her own struggle with feelings of loss and longing and shows that with time, grief evolves and we relearn the world changed by that loss.

Hello Grief can be read straight through from cover to cover or can be opened to any page: each spread delivers a warm combination of advice, solace, empathy, and a glint of humor that is direct, helpful, comforting, and profound in its truth. Olanow has distilled the experience of grief and the process of healing into a soothing book that will bring comfort to anyone in mourning.

Author Biography

Alessandra Olanow is the author and illustrator of the bestselling I Used to Have a Plan. She is a practicing end-of-life doula. She is also the creator of A.OK, a line of healing body oils. Alessandra shares her artwork on Instagram at @aolanow, and she lives in Brooklyn, New York, with her daughter Coco.