The Wild Edge of Sorrow

Hope and healing for a profoundly fractured world—a pathway home to the brightness, pains, and gifts of being alive.

The bestselling book on grief and loss from psychotherapist Francis Weller, now in a beautiful new hardcover gift edition.

The Wild Edge of Sorrow is described as "one of the best books on grief I have ever read. It helped me turn to and understand my grief in ways I never had before. It has helped me feel alive again." - Anderson Cooper

Profoundly moving and beautifully written, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a balm for the soul and a necessary salve for moving together through difficult times. Grounded in ritual and connection, this book welcomes each grief with care and attention, opening us to the feelings, experiences, and sacred knowledge that connect us to each other and ultimately make us whole.

Psychotherapist Francis Weller introduces the five gates of grief, helping us come to terms with grief and loss within a culture so fundamentally detached from the needs of the soul.

The first gate acknowledges that everything we love, we will lose. Here, we meet the pain of losing a loved one, the grief of illness, and the tender invitation to touch the depths of our losses and loves.

The second gate helps us uncover the places that have not yet known love—our secret shames, our shadow sides, and the neglected pieces of our soul that need restoration and care.

The third gate meets us at the immense sorrows of the world.

The fourth gate, what we expected but did not receive, offers wisdom for tending our wholeness after the love, care, and validation we need are withheld.

The fifth gate opens to our ancestral grief—the traumas, pains, losses, and unrealized dreams of those who came before us.

With grief rituals, reflection prompts, and deep, ageless wisdom, The Wild Edge of Sorrow is a genre-defining invitation to healing and renewal. Weller helps us rediscover what modernity has made us forget and reconnects us to our most profound human yearnings. Less a self-help volume than a blessing, this book is a homecoming for the soul.