"Andrew Holleran's novel Grief could be to fiction what Joan Didion's best-selling 2005 memoir, The Year of Magical Thinking, was to non-fiction: A hit about how we consciously and unconsciously cope with the death and absence of someone we love. . . . Grief, like Magical Thinking, is tempting to read in one sitting. Instead, it should be savored, because its emotional theme and elegiac tone are mesmerizing." --USA Today
"Grief is a short novel, but like a single note struck on a perfect silver bell, it carries far." --Salon
"This slender volume conjures up a rich and deeply seductive, satisfying world, one that welcomes readers gay, straight, single, coupled or otherwise. . . . Holleran's moving novel is mostly about human resilience and hope; our enduring need to love, despite our losses. The beautiful life is brief: all the more reason to embrace it." --Washington Post Book World, July 2, 2006
"Mr. Holleran's intellectual and esthetic poise make this an extraordinarily fine work of fiction--one that will live long in the mind because it provides so much to ponder. Paradoxically, its sad insights invigorate because they have the unmistakable ring of truth." --Washington Times
"Grief is likely to be seen as [Holleran's] most socially and politically significant work yet. . . . [It has] the kind of heart-stopping composition found in his 1988 Ground Zero as well as in James Joyce's short story masterpiece The Dead. . . . . Grief is an important, beautiful book. It will repay your investment." --Los Angeles Times
"This little book feels like a far-reaching masterpiece." --Seattle Times
"In a novella that's not just post-AIDS but virtually post-sex, Holleran exquisitely captures the many nuances of loss. A-" --Entertainment Weekly, EW Pick
"In Holleran's hands, the most bureaucratic city in America takes on the melancholic shading of Thomas Mann's Venice." --San Francisco Chronicle
"A pensive, creative, and haunting novel that speaks expressly to the heart without sentimentality. . . . Holleran's 'message'--that grief is never avoidable for any of us--is so sensitively rendered that it never impedes the swift development of the story line." --Booklist, starred review
"A haunting, exquisite novel about the nature of loss, grief and the illusion of intimacy." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review
"Holleran makes his coiled reticence speak volumes on attachment, aging, sex and love in small scenes as compelling as they are heartbreaking." --Publishers Weekly, starred review
"Elegant . . . Holleran's eloquence lures readers into the rich current of his thoughts . . . Concise and beautiful . . . Holleran has gained a perspective more expansive than ever before." --New York Times Book Review
"Devastating . . . In Holleran's hands, the most bureaucratic city in America takes on the melancholic shading of Thomas Mann's Death in Venice." --Philadelphia Inquirer
