How to Let Go (A Memoir of Finding Peace in Endings)

The New York Times bestselling author of The In-Between presents a vulnerable, moving memoir about the unraveling of her marriage, and her evolving journey to find beauty in life's endings and beginnings.

As a hospice nurse, Hadley Vlahos helps people navigate grief and major life transitions. After the success of her first book, The In-Between, Vlahos’s professional career was on the rise, and from the outside, everything looked picture-perfect. But behind the scenes, her personal life was falling apart, and it was now her turn to confront the loss and upheaval that she spent her days counseling her patients through.

In The Afterglow, Vlahos recounts her journey of rebuilding her life and coming into her own after her fairytale marriage turned out to be not what it seemed. With grace and vulnerability, Vlahos recounts how she put herself back together again after loss, while also sharing lessons she’s learned about life and death through her work as a nurse. She discusses some of the challenging situations people encounter when a loved one is in hospice, like taking advantage of the time you have left while simultaneously dealing with anticipatory grief, and how—or even whether—to say goodbye to an estranged parent.

Like her beloved first memoir, The Afterglow is a beautiful reminder that every moment—even a difficult and complicated one—is an opportunity: Until we take our final breath, we always have the ability to connect, to grow, and to begin again.