In my memoir, Remembering Ruth, I devote a chapter to books written years ago that helped me cope with the loss of my sister.  Today I recommend two recently published memoirs that deal with the death of a young sibling.

Tragedy + Time, by comedian Adam Cayton-Holland, is about the suicide of his younger sister, Lydia, when she was 28 and he was 32.  (They have an older sister, Anna.) Lydia had threatened suicide many times before, and her siblings and their parents had desperately tried to help her.  One day Lydia sends them a “goodbye” email, and Adam races over to her apartment where he finds her dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Adam is tortured by his beloved sister’s death, compounded by his finding her body.  He walks around with a giant void inside. His world begins to improve once he starts seeing a therapist who specializes in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR).  The technique, originally designed to treat soldiers with PTSD, has helped many other victims of severe trauma.  It is vital that he get past the horrendous experience of finding his sister’s body.  By going over that experience again and again in excruciating detail, he is slowly able to deal with the terrible event and her loss. Continue reading New Sibling-Loss Memoirs Worth Reading →