Synopses & Reviews
A moving and remarkable memoir about the sudden death of a daughter, surviving grief, and learning to love again.
In 2002, Ann Hood's five-year-old daughter Grace died suddenly from a virulent form of strep throat. Stunned and devastated, the family searched for comfort in a time when none seemed possible. Hood an accomplished novelist was unable to read or write. She could only reflect on her lost daughter "the way she looked splashing in the bathtub...the way we sang 'Eight Days a Week.'" One day, a friend suggested she learn to knit. Knitting soothed her and gave her something to do. Eventually, she began to read and write again. A semblance of normalcy returned, but grief, in ever new and different forms, still held the family. What they could not know was that comfort would come, and in surprising ways. Hood traces her descent into grief and reveals how she found comfort and hope again a journey to recovery that culminates with a newly adopted daughter.
Review
"A loving tribute by turns harrowing and beautiful." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"I will most likely never again eat pasta with butter and Parmesan or cucumbers cut in perfect rounds...without thinking of Ann Hood and her daughter." Los Angeles Times
Review
"Akin to Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking, Comfort beautifully discovers images and details to describe [Hood's] agony." Providence Journal
Synopsis
Ann Hood offers a moving and remarkable memoir about the sudden death of a daughter, surviving grief, and learning to love again.
Synopsis
In 2002, Ann Hood's five-year-old daughter Grace died suddenly from a virulent form of strep throat. Stunned and devastated, the family searched for comfort in a time when none seemed possible. Hood--an accomplished novelist--was unable to read or write. She could only reflect on her lost daughter--"the way she looked splashing in the bathtub ... the way we sang 'Eight Days a Week.'" One day, a friend suggested she learn to knit. Knitting soothed her and gave her something to do. Eventually, she began to read and write again. A semblance of normalcy returned, but grief, in ever new and different forms, still held the family. What they could not know was that comfort would come, and in surprising ways. Hood traces her descent into grief and reveals how she found comfort and hope again--a journey to recovery that culminates with a newly adopted daughter.
About the Author
Ann Hood is the editor of Knitting Yarns: Writers on Knitting and the best-selling author of The Knitting Circle, The Red Thread, Comfort, and, most recently, An Italian Wife, among other works. She is the recipient of two Pushcart Prizes, a Best American Spiritual Writing Award, a Best American Food Writing Award, a Best American Travel Writing Award, and the Paul Bowles Prize for Short Fiction. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.