The author of the bestselling I Used to Have a Plan is back with more balm for the soul, offering advice, inspiration, and solace for everyone who has lost something or someone special.

After losing her mother to cancer, Alessandra Olanow was overwhelmed by the sadness and uncertainty she felt each day—the shifting tide of emotions that everyone who has suffered loss experiences in their own unique way.

In this wise and intimate bereavement book, the artist and writer draws insights from her personal loss and also her training as an end-of-life doula to explore the complex, heart-rending process of coping with grief. Olanow chronicles her journey through pain and how she learned to bear a sorrow that will never leave her. In spare but incisive writing and more than 75 full-color drawings, she shares her own struggle with feelings of loss and longing and shows that with time, grief evolves and we relearn the world changed by that loss.

Hello Grief can be read straight through from cover to cover or can be opened to any page: each spread delivers a warm combination of advice, solace, empathy, and a glint of humor that is direct, helpful, comforting, and profound in its truth. Olanow has distilled the experience of grief and the process of healing into a soothing, illustrated book on grief that will bring comfort to anyone in mourning.

This gentle guide for mourning and healing offers:

• A Doula’s Perspective on Grief: Draws on author Alessandra Olanow’s training as an end-of-life doula to provide compassionate, expert insights into the journey of loss.


• Guidance Through Art and Text: Features more than 75 full-color, empathetic drawings that give voice to feelings when words are not enough.


• A Companion in Sorrow: Designed to be opened to any page for a dose of solace, this book is a friend to anyone learning to bear a sorrow that evolves but never truly leaves.


• The Perfect Sympathy Gift: A thoughtful and beautiful way to offer comfort, understanding, and a glint of humor to someone you care about who is mourning.