Justine Picardie: If the Spirit Moves You

By MARGIE THOMSON

Bereavement is such a complicated experience, as Picardie demonstrates in this moving memoir of a year in her life in which she was not only grieving over the death of her beloved sister, but had two other important people die as well.

Her sister had died a couple of years before the book opens, yet Picardie had not moved on from her shock and depression.

Despite the sad opening, by book's end one feels that love and life are finally establishing their own quiet pace again.

Picardie is a journalist who has edited the Observer Magazine, so it's no surprise that her writing comes wonderfully easily. Her tone is clear and light, always scrupulously, sometimes painfully, honest. A brave and ultimately hopeful book.

Picador

$27.95