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Found, Wanting
On Valentine’s Day, after a night of red wine and pasta and planning for their future, Natasha Sholl and her partner Rob went to bed. A few hours later, at the age of 27, his heart stopped.
Found, Wanting tells the story of Natasha’s attempt to rebuild her life in the wake of Rob’s sudden death, stumbling through the grief landscape and colliding with the cultural assumptions about the ‘right way’ to grieve.
It is a memoir about falling in love in the aftermath of loss, and what it means to build a life in the space that death leaves.
Furious and passionate, bracingly honest and beautiful, Found, Wanting is above all, a memoir about living and making sense of the multitude of lives within us.
Found, Wanting tells the story of Natasha’s attempt to rebuild her life in the wake of Rob’s sudden death, stumbling through the grief landscape and colliding with the cultural assumptions about the ‘right way’ to grieve.
It is a memoir about falling in love in the aftermath of loss, and what it means to build a life in the space that death leaves.
Furious and passionate, bracingly honest and beautiful, Found, Wanting is above all, a memoir about living and making sense of the multitude of lives within us.
288 pages, Hardcover
First published February 2, 2022
31 people are currently reading
2511 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews
March 31, 2022
I am drawn to grief memoir not because I want to see another person’s pain and loss but because I feel I have to see it. I need to see it. But what I’m really drawn to is the writing of it. Writing well about grief and trauma is hard. It takes skill and craft and time and effort. It takes work that all the while you need to be concealing that very work from the reader. Scholl is a stunning writer. Whatever brings you to this grief memoir know that the prose is always beautiful, even when it’s about sad and ugly truths. Grief memoirs offer comfort to those who have loved and lost and hopefully some solace to those who write them. But the sentences, the jewels of the book, are where the artistry lies. There is grief here but there is also art and for that I am grateful.
July 4, 2022
Beautifully written, honest and raw.
March 23, 2022
4.5 Stars
February 21, 2022
Natasha Sholl dedicated this book to 'those who have had to say goodbye too soon.' As someone who lost one of my best friends to the same condition that took Natasha's partner, the experiences in this book resonated with me beyond any expectations I may have had.
Found, Wanting is one of the rawest and most honest accounts of living with grief I've read. Natasha Sholl's writing is beautiful and powerful, and she delivers a number of profound insights crafted with a deft mastery of prose.
I highly recommend this book to anyone dealing with grief and wondering if anyone understands. Natasha Sholl does.
Found, Wanting is one of the rawest and most honest accounts of living with grief I've read. Natasha Sholl's writing is beautiful and powerful, and she delivers a number of profound insights crafted with a deft mastery of prose.
I highly recommend this book to anyone dealing with grief and wondering if anyone understands. Natasha Sholl does.
December 28, 2022
I recently did a Grief 101 session for colleagues, mostly to explain the types of grief other than that associated with bereavement. At the end, someone asked about further reading and without hesitation, I recommended Natasha Sholl's memoir,
Found, Wanting
. The 'without hesitation' bit is noteworthy because I'm usually reluctant to hold up a memoir as a means of understanding grief in a text-booky-way, but Sholl's writing is succinct and beautiful, compelling and devastatingly real and it would be hard not to identify with what she says in a helpful way.
At age 22, Sholl was in a committed relationship with Rob. One night, Sholl woke to find Rob dead beside her, and everything that she had assumed was taken away in an instant. She shut down, paralyzed by the incomprehensible tragedy. Her memoir tracks her very visceral experience of grief, and the things that happened after Rob's death (including being diagnosed with PTSD and complicated grief, a battle with disordered eating, further losses, and finding the things that soothed - therapy, yoga, medication and falling in love again).
In terms of understanding grief, this is why Found, Wanting is exceptional:
The unknown: Loss is different every time we experience it. How we can we possibly know? How can we possibly prepare? We can not. Sholl said that initially, much of the time she was '...acting out what I thought grieving looked like.'
The physicality of grief: At the Melbourne Writers Festival, Sholl said that writing helped her ‘metabolise’ the grief, and what is striking is how she gives grief form - '...my body knew before my brain did.'
Ambiguous loss: Rob's family was Jewish and sat shiva after his death. As Sholl and Rob were not married, she was not included in the process. She writes -
And writes of another wave of loss in the months after Rob's death, when her friendship group 'dwindled' because '...people...asked if there was anything they could do to help and then bailed when they realised there was nothing they could do to help'. And more than a decade after his death -
Time: Grief warps time - moments stretching for an eternity, days passing unnoticed. Sholl describes lapses of memory and the feeling of living parallel lives, with time being divided into 'before' and 'after' - My present exists only by reference to what precedes it.
The banality: One of the the most difficult elements of bereavement is that the rest of life keeps going. On starting a new job some time after Rob's death, Sholl says -
Other people: The friends, relatives and strangers who say and do the 'wrong' things. (I frequently tell my bereavement clients that they are not responsible for other peoples' grieving. This news is nearly always surprise, and it also provides immense relief.)
That grief is not a linear or staged process: It's chaos.
Toward the end of the book, Sholl refers to Kübler-Ross and Kessler's famous work that describes the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance). To Sholl's consternation, she discovers that another stage, meaning, had been added to the original five -
The language: Sholl examines the etymology of words used to describe death, focusing on 'sorry for your loss', '...as if the dead have been misplaced.' Our modern understanding of loss is '...failure to hold, keep or preserve what was in one’s possession' but in its Old English form, the word meant 'ruin or destruction' - a much more accurate reflection of Sholl’s experience.
Happiness: Because we can feel two things at once - sadness and joy.
Sholl's honesty and vulnerability sets this book apart. She does not shield the reader from the unspeakable, but instead, in her unflinching dissection of the pain, she normalises it. And in the normalising, the reader is reassured that in grief, something shifts, and we do go on, and we don't forget, but we adjust.
At the Melbourne Writers Festival, Sholl said she wrote the book that she wished had been available to her when her partner died. I am quite certain that anyone experiencing grief will find relief and comfort in her words. In Found, Wanting Sholl has also inadvertently tackled the 'sixth stage of grief' - meaning.
5/5 If you were to read only one grief memoir, this should be it.
At age 22, Sholl was in a committed relationship with Rob. One night, Sholl woke to find Rob dead beside her, and everything that she had assumed was taken away in an instant. She shut down, paralyzed by the incomprehensible tragedy. Her memoir tracks her very visceral experience of grief, and the things that happened after Rob's death (including being diagnosed with PTSD and complicated grief, a battle with disordered eating, further losses, and finding the things that soothed - therapy, yoga, medication and falling in love again).
In terms of understanding grief, this is why Found, Wanting is exceptional:
The unknown: Loss is different every time we experience it. How we can we possibly know? How can we possibly prepare? We can not. Sholl said that initially, much of the time she was '...acting out what I thought grieving looked like.'
None of us really knew what we were doing. The grief turned us insane. There is an assumption that the grieving process is a natural one. It's not. People would look to me for advice, to follow my lead, to follow orders, ready to serve. I was not a dependable captain of this grief ship. I was taking us all down.
The physicality of grief: At the Melbourne Writers Festival, Sholl said that writing helped her ‘metabolise’ the grief, and what is striking is how she gives grief form - '...my body knew before my brain did.'
My senses diluted. I waited. For a sign. For a feeling. For a message. For anything. His absence had a physical weight to it. It filled up the room.
Ambiguous loss: Rob's family was Jewish and sat shiva after his death. As Sholl and Rob were not married, she was not included in the process. She writes -
Another reminder of what I had lost: the future. The purpose of shiva is to allow mourners to express their sorrow before they re-enter society. There was a timeline already.
And writes of another wave of loss in the months after Rob's death, when her friendship group 'dwindled' because '...people...asked if there was anything they could do to help and then bailed when they realised there was nothing they could do to help'. And more than a decade after his death -
There is a second death: the loss of constant pain. When not every second of every day is consumed with thoughts of what happened. It's a comfort, of sorts, when the missing itself becomes so painful that it becomes its own kind of relationship. Keeps you linked to the person you love. The grief itself becomes something to nurture, something spiky and heavy and hot. The paradox that the very thing that feels so intolerable it may kill you is also the very thing that sustains you... When the grief melds and moulds and becomes malleable. No longer requires your constant attention. It's another loss.
Time: Grief warps time - moments stretching for an eternity, days passing unnoticed. Sholl describes lapses of memory and the feeling of living parallel lives, with time being divided into 'before' and 'after' - My present exists only by reference to what precedes it.
I had lost the memories of Rob and the words needed to describe them. I was left only with broccoli and olive bread and a love of cats and the feel of his biceps and the smell of his shoulder... A kind of grief dementia leaving off, unmatching objects behind for me to make sense of. And I wonder if the lack of words and a lack of memory means I loved him too much or not enough.
The banality: One of the the most difficult elements of bereavement is that the rest of life keeps going. On starting a new job some time after Rob's death, Sholl says -
I was asked where I went to school. Where I went to uni. If I had a boyfriend. There was no question that accounted for Rob. No one asked if I had had a major life trauma. If I ever missed someone so much that my muscles ached from the exhaustion of it.
Other people: The friends, relatives and strangers who say and do the 'wrong' things. (I frequently tell my bereavement clients that they are not responsible for other peoples' grieving. This news is nearly always surprise, and it also provides immense relief.)
"I can't even imagine," they said. Although they could.... They said they couldn't imagine, but what they meant was stop making me imagine.
That grief is not a linear or staged process: It's chaos.
Play the part, I heard, but don't let it ruin dinner. Observe the rituals. Don't make a scene. The tricky balance of public grief and private pain. It was hard to get the balance right, between what I needed to survive, to pass the time, and participation.
Toward the end of the book, Sholl refers to Kübler-Ross and Kessler's famous work that describes the five stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance). To Sholl's consternation, she discovers that another stage, meaning, had been added to the original five -
Elizabeth Kübler-Ross died. Kessler released another book and he added a sixth stage. A goddamn sixth stage. No, you do not get to be the poster boy for how-to-grieve and then change your mind. The New York Times called the original work a 'definitive account of how we grieve'. It's definitive. You had your chance. ... End of story, grief guy. If the definitive account was not definitive, what hope do any of us have? Proof of fallibility.
The language: Sholl examines the etymology of words used to describe death, focusing on 'sorry for your loss', '...as if the dead have been misplaced.' Our modern understanding of loss is '...failure to hold, keep or preserve what was in one’s possession' but in its Old English form, the word meant 'ruin or destruction' - a much more accurate reflection of Sholl’s experience.
The narrative of grief and loss is that surely there has to be an upside. Resilience! Superpowers! Eternal gratefulness! Extreme compassion! An appreciation of what really matters. But what if there's not? What if something shit just happens and then you keep being the person you always were. Just sadder. Maybe even a less-good version of yourself.
Happiness: Because we can feel two things at once - sadness and joy.
No one warned me about the very particular grief of happiness after a loss. Not just the monumental joys like falling in love or having children or celebrating a birthday, but the quiet moments of turning the pages of the best kind of book or the way wind sometimes has a particular smell... No one tells you how to experience these things without it taking away from the love you feel for someone who no longer exists in this world.
Where is the reverse palliative-care for those of us who return to the land of the living? Where are the nurses to tell us how to respond when, in the muck of grief, we feel an ache of lightness, of enjoyment, of connection to a life we did not agree to live?
Sholl's honesty and vulnerability sets this book apart. She does not shield the reader from the unspeakable, but instead, in her unflinching dissection of the pain, she normalises it. And in the normalising, the reader is reassured that in grief, something shifts, and we do go on, and we don't forget, but we adjust.
I have breakthroughs. As if the feeling of grief is some riddle to be solved. I am a detective, forever looking for clues.
At the Melbourne Writers Festival, Sholl said she wrote the book that she wished had been available to her when her partner died. I am quite certain that anyone experiencing grief will find relief and comfort in her words. In Found, Wanting Sholl has also inadvertently tackled the 'sixth stage of grief' - meaning.
5/5 If you were to read only one grief memoir, this should be it.
April 20, 2022
Unapologetically egocentric, Natasha writes about her grief and how it defines her. The writing moves between quotes and Greek myths, lyrical analogies and naked diary entries and phone notes. I didn’t come up for breath. It’s a really special piece of work.
August 9, 2022
A memoir on the trials of grief and the resilience and survival that come afterwards set in the South-Eastern Suburbs of Melbourne.
December 16, 2022
This is partly a book review, but more so a scattering of thoughts on loss. Found, Wanting is a memoir on grieving the loss of a loved one from Australian author Natasha Sholl. I hope sharing my thoughts persuades you in some way to find yourself a copy of this book and sink into it.
Over the past few months, I’ve been somewhat unconsciously drawn to books that explore grief. For me, the last 18 months has been processing more loss than I’ve experienced before and this book reminds me that grief, however immediately or intensely you might experience it, rolls into you in cascading waves of trauma. Some waves are larger than others, and some are so small you barely feel it ripple past your body, but you are aware of it nonetheless.
Very few authors have described grief with such honesty and acute insight as Natasha Sholl has done here with Found, Wanting. At times gut-wrenching in its vulnerability and terrifying in its relatability, Sholl’s writing is expressive and beautiful. She cuts into the core of the reader and puts it all out on the table in front of us.
Grief is inevitable and unending, but sometimes there is solace in the remembering. Grief is questioning the past and berating yourself for things you could have, should have, done differently. Grief is the leaves falling and flowers blooming, because every day shows you a new reminder of the ways in which someone is lost in time. Grief is the dam wall breaking, over and over again.
This book is for everyone who has lost someone, and everyone who hasn’t quite known how to say goodbye. May it help you feel a little less alone, as it has for me. x
There are no medals for the ones who endure, who get through the sleepless nights, who make it through the day, who are stuck in the mess and muck of grief. Grief itself is an endurance sport. Endless loops around the track, with nothing to show for it.
Over the past few months, I’ve been somewhat unconsciously drawn to books that explore grief. For me, the last 18 months has been processing more loss than I’ve experienced before and this book reminds me that grief, however immediately or intensely you might experience it, rolls into you in cascading waves of trauma. Some waves are larger than others, and some are so small you barely feel it ripple past your body, but you are aware of it nonetheless.
Very few authors have described grief with such honesty and acute insight as Natasha Sholl has done here with Found, Wanting. At times gut-wrenching in its vulnerability and terrifying in its relatability, Sholl’s writing is expressive and beautiful. She cuts into the core of the reader and puts it all out on the table in front of us.
Grief is inevitable and unending, but sometimes there is solace in the remembering. Grief is questioning the past and berating yourself for things you could have, should have, done differently. Grief is the leaves falling and flowers blooming, because every day shows you a new reminder of the ways in which someone is lost in time. Grief is the dam wall breaking, over and over again.
This book is for everyone who has lost someone, and everyone who hasn’t quite known how to say goodbye. May it help you feel a little less alone, as it has for me. x
There are no medals for the ones who endure, who get through the sleepless nights, who make it through the day, who are stuck in the mess and muck of grief. Grief itself is an endurance sport. Endless loops around the track, with nothing to show for it.
December 18, 2022
I don’t often read non-fiction, but I’d been particularly looking forward to discovering this memoir of grief and living & loving after loss.
This book blew me away. It’s raw, honest, painful, passionate and it’s gone straight into my re-reading pile because I felt every part of Natasha’s story and I will certainly be reading it again.
For a book with heavy and dark subject matter, I didn’t ever feel overwhelmed or that I needed to put the book down. I was compelled to keep reading. Natasha’s simply elegant prose and the moments of lightness and humour in her tale kept me afloat throughout the darkness and devastation.
I devoured this sublime book. On every page, it was clear that Natasha’s heart and soul was poured into the creation of this book. It’s incredibly moving, thoughtful and tender.
FOUND, WANTING is one of my favourite books of the year.
This book blew me away. It’s raw, honest, painful, passionate and it’s gone straight into my re-reading pile because I felt every part of Natasha’s story and I will certainly be reading it again.
For a book with heavy and dark subject matter, I didn’t ever feel overwhelmed or that I needed to put the book down. I was compelled to keep reading. Natasha’s simply elegant prose and the moments of lightness and humour in her tale kept me afloat throughout the darkness and devastation.
I devoured this sublime book. On every page, it was clear that Natasha’s heart and soul was poured into the creation of this book. It’s incredibly moving, thoughtful and tender.
FOUND, WANTING is one of my favourite books of the year.
February 13, 2022
I am overwhelmed by the power of this memoir to honour the love and loss endured by its author. Knowing Natasha through her primary and secondary school years, I was certain that it was her destiny to write. Sensitive, stirring, and uncensored, her words connect us to her heart-breaking grief and to her inspiring strength in rebuilding a life filled with love and gratitude, never forgetting those to whom she “had to say goodbye too soon.”
December 4, 2022
“There are no medals for those who endure, who get through the sleepless nights, who make it through the day, who are stuck in the mess and muck of grief. Grief itself is an endurance sport. Endless loops around the track, with nothing to show for it.”
“The world wants to see post-traumatic growth. It wants to see happy endings. A crescendo of grief and loss and pain and joy that leads to… something. Somewhere. But what if it dosen’t? “
Great perspective on rage. Perspective. What not to say to someone grieving?
Understanding what meanings can be taken away from the event of death, without focusing in on the meaning of the actual death. The closeness and connection that forms out of pain and trauma- family, children, friendships, husband.
Thought provoking read about the cultural assumptions we have about the supposed linear stages and progressions through grief. A story of endurance and ultimately the complexity of being able to experience intense joy and grief at the same time. Great Memoir.
“The world wants to see post-traumatic growth. It wants to see happy endings. A crescendo of grief and loss and pain and joy that leads to… something. Somewhere. But what if it dosen’t? “
Great perspective on rage. Perspective. What not to say to someone grieving?
Understanding what meanings can be taken away from the event of death, without focusing in on the meaning of the actual death. The closeness and connection that forms out of pain and trauma- family, children, friendships, husband.
Thought provoking read about the cultural assumptions we have about the supposed linear stages and progressions through grief. A story of endurance and ultimately the complexity of being able to experience intense joy and grief at the same time. Great Memoir.
January 24, 2024
it was very honest and raw and intense and confusing, as grief is. it was also beautiful. even the parts I disliked and disagreed with, it didn’t feel like I should because it wasn’t my grief or my life
really liked it. some parts felt weird. I am happy she got through and still gets through.
lost one star because I didn’t understand her relationship when she started speaking about it but only came to understand it at the end and had been harbouring too much annoyance at it
really liked it. some parts felt weird. I am happy she got through and still gets through.
lost one star because I didn’t understand her relationship when she started speaking about it but only came to understand it at the end and had been harbouring too much annoyance at it
January 5, 2024
Tragedy and grief written about so beautifully, with insightful honesty, rawness and courage.
September 7, 2025
i feel like this book was somehow a testimony of whether i am a good person or not, and i think i accidentally got a negative answer— /hj.
books about grief usually fascinate me. it is a strong emotion, and people usually go through it so differently, feel it for so different reasons, that it is bluntly speaking enchanting.
without any doubts, natasha's life path was rough. losing someone so young and so abruptly is hard.
...but i started to feel less sympathy with each chapter, and i realised that she is the type of people i could never bond or befriend in real life, thus, less empathic with each word. sadly.
by no means i want to sound crude about someone's mental health, but half of the problems are really just here because she is that type of person. i am not going to dwell on it much, because there is no way i am criticising someone's mental health and journey with grief in their memories, but one thing that i wanted to highlight (from many things that i have a problem with) is the part, where she tells that other grieving people making out of their grief something — like charity founds, or groups, or something useful — is useless/strange to her, and she is kinda "better" for refusing to make someone's death about (ultimately) her. i found it really tone-deaf!
so, yes, if a person generally makes someone's death about them it is strange, but in mentioned by her situations from her family circle, there was nothing wrong with it, and at least, her family try to cope in normal way, unlike natasha herself, lol. and, yes, she never directly states that she feels better for it, or she is not entirely rude to others mentioned, but the wording was icky, anyway.
(also, having kids back to back because you can't process grief is... questionable. good thing it turned out well, though.)
anyway.
the moment i really liked is the one, where natasha tells dean early on that her dad let her believe that she controls traffic by turning lights on red and green, and years later, he does the same trick with their kids. felt very heart-warming.
books about grief usually fascinate me. it is a strong emotion, and people usually go through it so differently, feel it for so different reasons, that it is bluntly speaking enchanting.
without any doubts, natasha's life path was rough. losing someone so young and so abruptly is hard.
...but i started to feel less sympathy with each chapter, and i realised that she is the type of people i could never bond or befriend in real life, thus, less empathic with each word. sadly.
by no means i want to sound crude about someone's mental health, but half of the problems are really just here because she is that type of person. i am not going to dwell on it much, because there is no way i am criticising someone's mental health and journey with grief in their memories, but one thing that i wanted to highlight (from many things that i have a problem with) is the part, where she tells that other grieving people making out of their grief something — like charity founds, or groups, or something useful — is useless/strange to her, and she is kinda "better" for refusing to make someone's death about (ultimately) her. i found it really tone-deaf!
so, yes, if a person generally makes someone's death about them it is strange, but in mentioned by her situations from her family circle, there was nothing wrong with it, and at least, her family try to cope in normal way, unlike natasha herself, lol. and, yes, she never directly states that she feels better for it, or she is not entirely rude to others mentioned, but the wording was icky, anyway.
(also, having kids back to back because you can't process grief is... questionable. good thing it turned out well, though.)
anyway.
the moment i really liked is the one, where natasha tells dean early on that her dad let her believe that she controls traffic by turning lights on red and green, and years later, he does the same trick with their kids. felt very heart-warming.
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April 16, 2022Found, Wanting is Natasha Sholl's journey through grief. Weighted in the realities of grief there is definitely no sugar coating in this book. Taboo topics are explored with rawness and honesty, from the complexities of finding love again, hypochondria and black outs. Even though there is an obvious heaviness to this book, it is compulsively readable and I finished it in one sitting. I find it hard to rate memoir as I hate putting a star rating on someone's lived experience but this one is a realistic portrayal of grief and one that is very important.
April 7, 2023
Beautifully written descriptive language. Some parts were long in parts and could have done with a bit of an edit.
I also felt sure that when she got back together with Dean after doing coke and having a serious eating disorder then it was surely headed for trouble but that worked out. She doesn’t seem to have ever really resolved her eating disorder though. It did give an excellent view of grief and created a deep sense of empathy for the reader.
I also felt sure that when she got back together with Dean after doing coke and having a serious eating disorder then it was surely headed for trouble but that worked out. She doesn’t seem to have ever really resolved her eating disorder though. It did give an excellent view of grief and created a deep sense of empathy for the reader.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 8, 2022
4.5 stars
September 7, 2022
A heartbreaking and beautifully written memoir.
August 20, 2023
Heartbreaking, beautifully written memoir
November 10, 2023
Definite 4 1/2 stars, loved!
March 4, 2024
4.5 stars. This was a beautiful but sad read, so honest and real.
May 30, 2024
I read a lot of memoirs, few are as beautifully written as this. What a story of heartbreak, loss & grief - but more than anything…love in all its messiness & beauty.
I hope Natasha writes more books, because I will read them all. This was exceptional.
I hope Natasha writes more books, because I will read them all. This was exceptional.
March 6, 2022
From one angry woman to another - thank you for writing this book Natasha.
April 25, 2022
Actual rating: 3.5*
Definitely an interesting memoir to read. The storyline follows the sudden death of Natasha’s boyfriend and her subsequent life story. There is a lot of death in this text and therefore a lot of grief. I guess there is a message of hope and survival too - but this isn’t really seen until her children provide an escape, later in life. The writing is quite clever but, despite topics that were terribly sad, I did not cry.
Definitely an interesting memoir to read. The storyline follows the sudden death of Natasha’s boyfriend and her subsequent life story. There is a lot of death in this text and therefore a lot of grief. I guess there is a message of hope and survival too - but this isn’t really seen until her children provide an escape, later in life. The writing is quite clever but, despite topics that were terribly sad, I did not cry.
May 9, 2022
I must admit I was a little scared to pick up Natasha Sholl’s book Found, Wanting. After losing Mum in 2017, the idea of ruminating on death and grief for a prolonged time sounded like a confronting exercise. But I needn’t have feared. What a phenomenal book. Natasha manages to put down on the page those “wrong”, self-sabotaging AND euphoric thoughts and feelings we all have but can’t quite articulate. Moments, big and small, are so vividly depicted it feels like a TV show you just can’t stop binge watching. I loved it!
July 7, 2022
This was beautifully written and obviously heartbreaking memoir about grief. Natasha is a wonderful writer. Not to be cliche, but raw is the perfect word to describe this book.
November 1, 2022
This book grabbed my heart and squeezed and squeezed until there were moments I could hardly breathe. To write something so beautiful out of something so devastating is an astounding achievement.
August 30, 2023
A very touching memoir on grief, trauma and everything that spirals along with it. It is beautifully written with sentences that take your breath away. Simultaneously confronting and tender.
October 27, 2023
Massive love, my heart!
April 10, 2022
A gripping and exhausting, funny and despairing, and completely compelling account of living with grief.
Natasha Sholl is 22 when she wakes to find her boyfriend Rob dead beside her from a rare heart condition. Found, Wanting builds of a portrait of her life before and after Rob’s death, how they met and fell in love, her relationships with family and friends, and her finding love again.
But mostly it is a forensic study of the modes of grief. There is human absurdity of it: the people who say the wrong thing, the way life keeps going on. Then there is something primordial, a force that warps time and memory. Sholl’s achievement is holding both to the light simultaneously in her search for meaning.
I certainly learned a lot from this book, and was comforted by Sholl’s wisdoms. But above all I was impressed by her sharp and tactile writing. Read more on my blog.
Natasha Sholl is 22 when she wakes to find her boyfriend Rob dead beside her from a rare heart condition. Found, Wanting builds of a portrait of her life before and after Rob’s death, how they met and fell in love, her relationships with family and friends, and her finding love again.
But mostly it is a forensic study of the modes of grief. There is human absurdity of it: the people who say the wrong thing, the way life keeps going on. Then there is something primordial, a force that warps time and memory. Sholl’s achievement is holding both to the light simultaneously in her search for meaning.
I certainly learned a lot from this book, and was comforted by Sholl’s wisdoms. But above all I was impressed by her sharp and tactile writing. Read more on my blog.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 93 reviews