We often think of bereavement in terms of deep melancholy or gentle sadness, but “grief behaves badly and grief is risk-taking”, says Sophie Ratcliffe, Oxford literary critic and author of the memoir The Lost Properties of Love. Here, she recommends five books that may act as a balm for those who have lost someone, and says that the act of reading—any book, any poem—can be consoling.

The Latin American holiday commemorating dead relatives is characterised by altars decorated with skulls and marigolds, explains the author of a book on how the festival has now migrated to the American mainstream