"aching beauty and indelible grace" Ann Hood's latest

this week I get the chance to talk with Ann Hood again - this time she's written a novel that was inspired by her own life and the adoption of her daughter Annabelle from China. It's called "The Red Thread" and Dennis LeHane called it "a work of aching beauty and indelible grace. A novel that elicts nothing less than wonder."

The title The Red Thread, is based on an ancient Chinese belief that connects children to all of the people that eventually play a part in their lives.

The Rawness of Grief with Ann Hood

This week I get the chance to talk with novelist Ann Hood. I talked with Ann last year about her novel, "The Knitting Circle", which was based in part on her own experiences. This video is a great explanation of that book.



Ann's latest book is NOT a novel. It's her first non-fiction in fact, about the process of grief. Death and losing people you love is often written about - but besides Joan Didion's "The Year of Magical Thinking" I haven't read this raw or real of an account of how grief can envelope you.

What I took away most strongly from "Comfort: A Journey Through Grief" was how telling our stories can help. Talking, connecting, listening....

In reading this you may think that "Comfort" is a sad book. It's not. It's as Ann describes the process of grief - horrible, gut-wrenching, life-altering, sad, but also in small ways, filled with the joy of having loved.