Read a Girl #39: “Notes on Grief”, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Hello, friend :)

I want to start this newsletter - the last one of 2021 - with a thank you to all of you who continue to show up every month when this email hits your inboxes. It really means so much to me and I still can’t believe how much this little project has grown in the past three years. So, yeah, thank you.

Now on to our last book of the year. During the pandemic, author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie unexpectedly lost her father. Unable to fly home to say goodbye due to the Covid-19 restrictions, Chimamanda wrote an essay in which she remembers her beloved father.

The essay was expanded and turned into a book. “Notes on Grief” is the story of how we are changed by grief. Although it is not a particularly “happy” read, it is a work of self-reflection and living through our worst days, hoping for better ones to come.

Find the books featured in our newsletter in our shop at Bookshop.org. 

My first book, “a spectacularly sad ending”, is a collection of poetry and prose about heartbreak, loss and survival. It chronicles experiences of love, loss, abuse and grief, and is for anyone who is or ever had to mend a broken heart. It’s available as a paperback and also on Kindle. You can get it here.

🎵 This newsletter was written to the sounds of “Afterlife”, by Arcade Fire.

We have a playlist with all of the music featured in our newsletters. You can listen to it on Spotify.

My name is Renata and I am the Founder and Editor of Read a Girl, a platform aimed at promoting the work of women writers. My background is in journalism and I spent most of my career covering foreign affairs and travelling around looking for good stories to tell. I love reading and my favourite authors are Elena Ferrante, J.D. Salinger, Julian Barnes and Sylvia Plath.

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