3 Review(s)

The death of a child is seldom discussed. This book is for those who experience such tragedies, the shock and the loss. "The Death of a Child" is a collection of a dozen essays in which parents and siblings tell their own stories of losing a child, brother or sister, and of how they have coped with bereavement and grief. Their experiences cover a range from the earliest loss - actress and author Carol Drinkwater's miscarriages, or Irish writer Catherine Dunne's still-birth - right up to campaigner Augusto Odone losing his severely disabled son, Lorenzo, the day after his 30th birthday, or novelist Wendy Perriam coping with the death of her daughter, Pauline, when she was 43. The essays reflect the different causes of bereavement - illness (brief and long-term), accident, and malice. And the collection ends with a reflection by the celebrated psychotherapist, Dorothy Rowe, on surviving the loss of a child.