Grief Cure

Cody Delistraty is a writer and speechwriter, most recently working as the culture editor at the Wall Street Journal Magazine. He has written for the New York Times, The New Yorker, the Atlantic, and was the European arts columnist for The Paris Review. He has degrees in politics from New York University and in history from the University of Oxford. British Vogue named him a best young writer of the year, and he has given talks about art and creativity to companies like PwC. He lives in New York City.

"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“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“Journalist Delistraty makes his book debut with a touching memoir of his experience of prolonged, profound grief over the death of his mother. . . . A candid recounting of a fraught psychological and emotional journey.” — Kirkus Reviews“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“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] heart-rending and incredibly astute work of nonfiction.” — Bustle, This Summer’s 40 Most Anticipated Books"…chronicling the [grief] experience with emotional acuity, scientific insight, and surprising levity, he provides readers with a guide for how they might approach their own. . . . That’s what makes The Grief Cure so novel: while countless literary heavyweights have written about their own experiences with loss, and scientists are working to develop treatments for grief, few books bridge the gap between the personal experience of grief and the broader societal context that surrounds it." — The Brooklyn Rail“Delistraty is a careful and talented writer… as Delistraty says, grief comes for everyone; his memoir makes it clear that we must fight harder as a society to not have to face it alone.” — The Los Angeles Times"If ever you’ve experienced grief, or if ever you expect to, you really need to read The Grief Cure… magnificent” — Susan Cain, author of Bittersweet and Quiet“An earnest personal inquiry into how medicine and technology could be used to treat complex grief. . . . Despite the serious subject matter, there is much levity and a spirit of curiosity here.”  — Shelf Awareness, The Best Books This Week