In the Midst of Winter

A breathtaking indispensable collection featuring poetry fiction letters and diaries of the world’s greatest writers on the nature of grief. . Death silences not only those it takes but those it leaves behind: All too typically we can neither express our grief nor express sympathy for the bereaved. In this sensitive collection loss finds a voice—or several voices—in the poetry fiction letters and diaries of the world's great writers. Here are James Agee recording the shock of his father's death; William Shakespeare making poetry of Cleopatra's grief; the Biblical wisdom of The Book of Lamentations; the psychological acuity of Marcel Proust. Here are mourners from classical Rome to eleventh-century China from the Paiute Indians to present-day Ireland. Arranged in sections that correspond to the stages of mourning In the Midst of Winter is a volume whose breadth and resonance make it invaluable and utterly unique.