Tears and grief revisited deftly

Postscript By Cecelia Ahern, HarperCollins, $32.99 .. .. .. .. ..

This is a tough one if you're recently bereaved. But it's also oddly comforting.

It's been 15 years since her novel, PS I Love You, was published, and made into a hit movie about a husband dying of cancer who writes letters to his young wife before he dies, encouraging her to live after he's gone.

Ahern wrote that when she was 21. It's now been seven years since Holly's husband died and six since she read his last letter.

She's proud of how far she's come, with a tentative romance and a job working with her sister. She agrees to do a podcast about her husband's letters, and then a group of dying people contact her.

They want to write their own letters and need her help to tell them how to leave meaningful messages for their loved ones.

And just like that she's back in the grief she thought she had escaped.

Helping these people with their farewells makes her realise she has to carry on, but grief will always be with her. Loving someone forever shouldn't stop her living.

Ahern writes beautifully and without mawkishness so this is a good read. Just keep tissues handy.

— Linda Thompson