Comforting audiobooks about grief and loss that actually help

Seven years after her mom died, Rebecca Soffer continued to struggle with her loss. As a griever who couldn’t just stay positive or follow the standard timeline for moving on, she felt like a failure, and terribly alone. Unable to find the warmth, encouragement, and realness about grief’s messiness she was seeking, she co-founded Modern Loss, a judgement-free place to share feelings (including rage) and stories (both sad and hilarious) about navigating life after loss. Narrating with empathy and wit, Soffer offers advice, rituals, and exercises to help listeners weave grief into their lives in ways that are practical, creative, comforting, and, ultimately, hopeful.

When celebrated writer Joan Didion’s life was altered forever, she wrote a new chapter. In this adaptation of her iconic memoir, Didion transforms the story of the shattering loss of her husband and their daughter into a one-woman play performed by Tony Award winner Vanessa Redgrave, who originated the role on Broadway in 2007. Written with Didion’s trademark style of cool observation, The Year of Magical Thinking weaves back and forth in time, taking listeners on a poignant journey through heartbreak, grief, and resilience. It’s an unforgettable theatrical experience that resonates with anyone who has ever loved and lost.

Though a work of fiction, Lincoln in the Bardo provides a glimpse into a reality so many of us are unfortunately familiar with—coping with the loss of a loved one and pondering where their very soul goes after death. Author George Saunders spins a unique and truly unforgettable work of historical fiction, focusing on President Abraham Lincoln in the days following the death of his adored 11-year-old son, Willie. Absorbed in his grief, Lincoln returns time and again to Willie's tomb, while in the Bardo, the transitional state between life and death, a push-and-pull begins. A full cast, including Nick Offerman, Don Cheadle, Bradley Whitford, Susan Sarandon, and Julianne Moore, brings this touching saga to vivid, soaring life in this Audie Award-winning listen.

A meditation written after the death of his wife, C.S. Lewis's sparse and moving A Grief Observed has been loved for years because of its stark honesty about how completely debilitating loss can be. Lewis pulls no punches about how the death of a loved one can feel like you're going mad, like nothing will ever be good again, like torture. With each word punctuated by the genial delivery of Audie Award-winning narrator Ralph Cosham, this is an audiobook for the person who doesn't want platitudes, happy stories, or optimism—just searing truth.

There are few griefs more relentlessly painful than the loss of a child. If you or someone you love has had to bear such an unthinkable tragedy, a listen like Luke Daniels's Unspoken may offer some comfort and consolation. Daniels, who is a fan favorite performer honored in the Audible Narrator Hall of Fame, lost his son Finnegan at only 21-months-old. In this touching and raw reflection that shines with heartbreak and humor in equal measure, Daniels offers an exquisite tribute to his son that is sure to resonate with anyone who has ever lost someone far too soon.

In this author-narrated memoir, we meet Tembi, an aspiring young actress from Texas, as she meets Saro, a professional chef, in Florence, Italy, and falls in love. Although Saro’s family doesn't approve of Tembi, because she is American and Black, the two marry, build a life together in Los Angeles, and adopt a child. When Saro is diagnosed with cancer, they reconcile with his family, and when he is gone, Tembi endeavors to connect with her also recently widowed Sicilian mother-in-law. Over three summers, Tembi spends time with Nonna, finding strength in her quiet faith and savoring her comforting meals, as she figures out how to forge a new life without her husband. A gorgeous and stirring story of love, loss, growth, and forgiveness, From Scratch offers solidarity and support to listeners coping with the loss of a spouse.

Each year about eight million Americans suffer the death of someone close to them. For those who experience the shock and life-shattering challenges of a loved one's sudden death, I Wasn't Ready to Say Goodbye offers genuine understanding and a welcome hand to hold. Written by Brook Noel and Pamela D. Blair, PhD, who have both lived through unexpected loss, this updated edition of the bestselling bereavement classic will touch, comfort, uplift, and console.

When Meghan O'Rourke lost her mother to cancer and separated from her husband, her life was profoundly altered. She began keeping a record of the days that followed such loss, asking what it means to grieve in a culture that is embarrassed by grief and doesn't know how to speak about death. A brave, beautiful, and deeply comforting audiobook for someone who has lost a parent, The Long Goodbye is also an important examination about how society feels about grief in general. In this author-narrated selection, O'Rourke brings her poet's voice to the delivery of each word.

In 2003, Christina Crosby was an active, adventurous person living a full life. When a bicycle accident left her paralyzed from the neck down, she faced the shocking loss of her own mobility and a new world plagued by pain and restrictions. In this author-narrated memoir, Crosby proves that grief accompanies not only death but also the loss of freedom and health. In her own voice, she speaks candidly about her struggles to face her new reality and learn how to accept her limitations while staying open to the possibilities ahead. A Body, Undone is searing in its honesty and ultimately uplifting.

Paul Kalanithi spent nearly a decade training to become a neurosurgeon, but just as he was wrapping up his training, he received the devastating news that he'd been diagnosed with terminal cancer. For the first time in his life, Kalanithi wasn't looking ahead but to the now, and, as he shares in this moving memoir, he grappled with what it meant to live a meaningful life when he didn't have a future to work towards. Expertly read by voice actor Sunil Malhotra and Hall of Fame narrator Cassandra Campbell, When Breath Becomes Air explores what it means to truly live, even in the face of loss.

Easily one of the best memoirs of 2021, Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner, author, artist, and musician of indie rock project Japanese Breakfast fame, is a gutting reflection on love, culture, identity, food, and loss. Whether Zauner is people-watching in the titular grocer’s food court or learning of her mother’s cancer diagnosis, her candid prose and delicate delivery provide an honest, unrelenting look at the realities of grief.

Like Journey of Souls, this audiobook seeks to address and help us better understand what lies beyond life. In After, Dr. Bruce Greyson, a physician without a religious belief system, approaches near-death experiences and the concept of life after death from a scientific perspective. Ideal for anyone who might find consolation in a listen that details the transition from life to death to what comes after without necessarily having faith in the traditional notion of heaven or God, this audiobook is as fascinating and enlightening as it is helpful.