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Table of Contents
About The Book
Jill Bialosky, the poet behind the “tender, absorbing, and deeply moving memoir” (Entertainment Weekly) History of a Suicide, returns with a lyrical portrait of her mother’s life, told in reverse order from burial to birth.
When Iris Yvonne Bialosky died in an assisted care facility on March 29, 2020, it unleashed a torrent of emotions in her daughter, Jill Bialosky. Grief, of course, but also guilt, confusion, and doubt, all of which were compounded by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic which made it impossible for Jill to be with her mother as she was dying and to attend her mother’s funeral.
Now, with a poet’s eye for detail and a novelist’s flair for storytelling, Jill presents a profoundly moving elegy unlike any other. Starting with her mother’s end and the physical/cognitive decline that led her to a care home, The End Is the Beginning explores Iris’s battle with depression, the tragedy of a daughter’s suicide, a failed second marriage, the death of her beloved first husband only five years into their young marriage, her joyful teenage years, and the trauma of losing her own mother at just eight years old. Compounding her challenges of raising four daughters without a livelihood or partner, Iris’s life coincided with an age of unstoppable social change and reinvention, when the roles of wife and mother she was raised to inhabit ceased to be the guarantors of stability and happiness.
As we see Iris become younger and younger, we learn how we are all the sum of our experiences. Iris becomes a multi-dimensional, fascinating woman. We come to understand her difficulties and shortcomings, her neediness and her generosity, her pride and her despair. The End Is the Beginning is not just a family memoir, it is a brave and compassionate celebration of a woman’s life and death and a window into a daughter’s inextricable bond to her mother.
When Iris Yvonne Bialosky died in an assisted care facility on March 29, 2020, it unleashed a torrent of emotions in her daughter, Jill Bialosky. Grief, of course, but also guilt, confusion, and doubt, all of which were compounded by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic which made it impossible for Jill to be with her mother as she was dying and to attend her mother’s funeral.
Now, with a poet’s eye for detail and a novelist’s flair for storytelling, Jill presents a profoundly moving elegy unlike any other. Starting with her mother’s end and the physical/cognitive decline that led her to a care home, The End Is the Beginning explores Iris’s battle with depression, the tragedy of a daughter’s suicide, a failed second marriage, the death of her beloved first husband only five years into their young marriage, her joyful teenage years, and the trauma of losing her own mother at just eight years old. Compounding her challenges of raising four daughters without a livelihood or partner, Iris’s life coincided with an age of unstoppable social change and reinvention, when the roles of wife and mother she was raised to inhabit ceased to be the guarantors of stability and happiness.
As we see Iris become younger and younger, we learn how we are all the sum of our experiences. Iris becomes a multi-dimensional, fascinating woman. We come to understand her difficulties and shortcomings, her neediness and her generosity, her pride and her despair. The End Is the Beginning is not just a family memoir, it is a brave and compassionate celebration of a woman’s life and death and a window into a daughter’s inextricable bond to her mother.
About The Author
Beowulf Sheehan
Jill Bialosky is the author of five acclaimed collections of poetry, most recently Asylum. Her poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Atlantic, among others. She is the author of many novels including, The Deceptions, and several works of nonfiction including The End Is the Beginning, History of a Suicide, and Poetry Will Save Your Life. In 2015, Jill was honored by the Poetry Society of America for her distinguished contribution to the field of poetry. She lives in New York City. Find out more at JillBialosky.com.
Product Details
- Publisher: Atria Books (May 6, 2025)
- Length: 272 pages
- ISBN13: 9781451677942
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Raves and Reviews
Praise for The End is the Beginning
“Bialosky delivers a nuanced portrait of her mother, Iris, who died in 2020. . . . [she] approaches the heavy subject matter with a light touch and casually profound prose. Readers will be moved.” —Publisher's Weekly (starred review)
“Exquisitely written. . . [Bialosky] expresses deeply poignant feelings and insights. . . spellbinding.” —Booklist
“[A] daughter’s poignant effort to see the whole of [her mother’s] life that was often fractured by mental illness and cognitive decline.” —Oprah Daily
“[A]n affecting family history of loss and grief.” —Kirkus Reviews
“This richly sympathetic memoir deserves—and will surely find—a noted position in the history of mother-daughter books through the tender-hearted work of Jill Bialosky.” —Vivian Gornick, critically acclaimed author of Fierce Attachments
“Reading The End Is the Beginning is like opening a set of nesting dolls. With each lyrical, finely wrought chapter, Jill Bialosky takes us back in time, revealing era after era of her mother’s life, from her final days to her girlhood. The End Is the Beginning is as smart and inventive as it is deeply moving. What we find at the center of the story, and the life, is love.” —Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful
“Be a lamp or a lifeboat or a ladder, Rumi says. This compassionate, lyrical and clear-eyed memoir is all three. A gift to anyone with a family.” —Amy Bloom, New York Times bestselling author of In Love
“Like Annie Ernaux, Bialosky is scrupulous and unsentimental in her account; this rigor is, itself, a testament of great love. The End is The Beginning is an unforgettable and profoundly moving book.” —Claire Messud, critically acclaimed author of This Strange Eventful History
“How do you endure the unendurable? When Jill Bialosky's mother finally succumbed to Alzheimer's at the height of the pandemic, she couldn't even be there to bear witness. This book is an atonement: a brave and eloquent assessment of a life battered by loss and ennobled by resilience.” —Geraldine Brooks, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, most recently of Horse
Praise for Poetry Will Save Your Life
"A lovely hybrid that blends [Bialosky's] coming-of-age story with engaging literary analysis." —The Washington Post
"The book will open worlds. It is itself a life-saving book." —Will Schwalbe, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Your LIfe Book Club and Books for Living
"Bialosky, a poet and novelist, sees her life broken up not by years, but through poems. Her moving memoir...shows how poetry can be a powerful tool for healing and understanding." —Real Simple
Praise for History of a Suicide
"A searing elegy . . . This memoir reads like butter and cuts like a knife." —People
"Eloquent, harrowing and wise, this memoir is brave and necessary." —San Francisco Chronicle
"Tender, absorbing, and deeply moving...Bialosky writes so gracefully and bravely that what you're left with in the end is an overwhelming sense of love." —Entertainment Weekly (Grade: A)
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