---
product_id: 315966
title: "The Year of Magical Thinking"
price: "€ 23.28"
currency: EUR
in_stock: null
reviews_count: 9
url: https://www.desertcart.hr/products/315966-the-year-of-magical-thinking
store_origin: HR
region: Croatia
---

# 4.4/5 from 14K+ reviews National Book Award Winner Top 50 Memoir Bestseller The Year of Magical Thinking

**Price:** € 23.28
**Availability:** ❌ Out of Stock

## Summary

> 📖 Experience grief like never before — raw, real, and unmissable.

## Quick Answers

- **What is this?** The Year of Magical Thinking
- **How much does it cost?** € 23.28 with free shipping
- **Is it available?** Currently out of stock
- **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.hr](https://www.desertcart.hr/products/315966-the-year-of-magical-thinking)

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- Customers looking for quality international products

## Why This Product

- Free international shipping included
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## Key Features

- • **Raw, Unfiltered Grief:** Joan Didion’s brutally honest memoir breaks the silence around loss without clichés or platitudes.
- • **Critically Acclaimed Classic:** Winner of the National Book Award and a top-ranked memoir that resonates deeply with readers worldwide.
- • **A Must-Have for Your Bookshelf:** Join thousands who find solace and strength in Didion’s unforgettable narrative—don’t miss out on this cultural touchstone.
- • **Relatable for the Modern Professional:** Perfect for millennials navigating personal loss while balancing demanding careers and emotional wellbeing.
- • **Emotional Depth Meets Literary Excellence:** A beautifully written journey through grief that’s both heart-wrenching and cathartic.

## Overview

The Year of Magical Thinking is Joan Didion’s National Book Award-winning memoir that candidly explores the first year after her husband’s sudden death. Praised for its raw honesty and literary mastery, this top-ranked memoir offers a profound, unvarnished look at grief, making it an essential read for anyone seeking emotional insight and connection.

## Description

The Year of Magical Thinking: National Book Award Winner (Vintage International) [Didion, Joan] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Year of Magical Thinking: National Book Award Winner (Vintage International)

Review: Deserves to become a classic memoir about grief and loss - I stayed up almost all might just to finish reading it, unable to put this down, although I confess I had to keep a box of tissues nearby. I've lost 5 people in the last few years and, just recently, another friend and so I related very strongly to this book. Didion's unflinching account of the sudden loss of her husband (which occurred while their only child was in a coma in a hospital (!)) deserves to be a classic in the genre of books written by and for those who are grieving. It is hard to find books like this, which are both honest but not overly sentimental, not resorting to the tropes which seem to surround death. She doesn't offer vague platitudes or advice. She simply relates her very personal experience, including the inevitable vulnerability, unexpected moments of being blindsided by memories and sudden tears, etc. She covers all the bases, including the kind of insanity that can seize one in the throes of grief, those moments when you forget the person is actually dead, when you turn to speak to him or her as you normally would at a certain part of the day or reach for the phone to share the latest news. The book is raw. If you're looking for religous or spiritual guidance and inspiration, this is not the book for you. As Didion herself noted, writing about the book recently, it was intentionally written "raw". I assume she didn't want to wait, to distance herself from the intensity of the experience as she wrote it down, quite unlike many other books she has written. Raw or not, it wasn't sloppy, overly sentimental or complete despairing. It was simply honest, heartwrenchingly so, and Didion doesn't deviate from communicating, in absolute striking detail, the sense of alienation and disorientation that separates mourners from those who seem to be living "normal" lives. Grief is its own territory, separate from so-called normalcy. In so many ways, it is an illness, an affliction of the spirit and not one that can be cured in any one way. An aside- the photo of Didion inside the dustjacket is haunting. No question that those are the eyes of someone who has been scraped to the core, wounded and, presumably, still recovering. There is something beautiful in that portrait and, oddly, comforting. It is the face of a survivor, however hard it might be to live as one. This book will remain on my bookshelf and I expect I'll be thumbing through it for solace time and again. Reading it was both painful and cathartic and strangely comforting, with an intensity that left me awestruck. I am still amazed that she was able to produce such a beautifully written book in the throes of so much pain.
Review: A Journey Through Grief - This is an amazing read of an author's first year, following the very sudden death of her husband, complicated by their adopted daughter in Intensive care with an unclear prognosis. She relives very detailed memories, trying to bring him back. Sometimes she revisits past events losing cognitive awareness. There is no one to report things to, share lunch with, critique her work, ask help from - they each had their own offices in their home. If one needed to travel for work, they often travelled together and the 'extra' would work in their hotel room. So although their writings and roles were different, there was a lot of collaborative work, along with sharing of ideas, quotes, incidents etc. So they were a couple who didn't spend much time apart, often working long days and then going out for late dinners. So, the loss was magnified. How can the world not stop? John has gone! A very worthwhile read!

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #1,630 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #5 in Author Biographies #22 in Women's Biographies #44 in Memoirs (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars (14,323) |
| Dimensions  | 5.19 x 0.66 x 7.96 inches |
| Edition  | Reprint |
| ISBN-10  | 1400078431 |
| ISBN-13  | 978-1400078431 |
| Item Weight  | 8.8 ounces |
| Language  | English |
| Print length  | 227 pages |
| Publication date  | February 13, 2007 |
| Publisher  | Vintage |

## Images

![The Year of Magical Thinking - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51EEds3BeuL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Deserves to become a classic memoir about grief and loss
*by K***N on October 6, 2005*

I stayed up almost all might just to finish reading it, unable to put this down, although I confess I had to keep a box of tissues nearby. I've lost 5 people in the last few years and, just recently, another friend and so I related very strongly to this book. Didion's unflinching account of the sudden loss of her husband (which occurred while their only child was in a coma in a hospital (!)) deserves to be a classic in the genre of books written by and for those who are grieving. It is hard to find books like this, which are both honest but not overly sentimental, not resorting to the tropes which seem to surround death. She doesn't offer vague platitudes or advice. She simply relates her very personal experience, including the inevitable vulnerability, unexpected moments of being blindsided by memories and sudden tears, etc. She covers all the bases, including the kind of insanity that can seize one in the throes of grief, those moments when you forget the person is actually dead, when you turn to speak to him or her as you normally would at a certain part of the day or reach for the phone to share the latest news. The book is raw. If you're looking for religous or spiritual guidance and inspiration, this is not the book for you. As Didion herself noted, writing about the book recently, it was intentionally written "raw". I assume she didn't want to wait, to distance herself from the intensity of the experience as she wrote it down, quite unlike many other books she has written. Raw or not, it wasn't sloppy, overly sentimental or complete despairing. It was simply honest, heartwrenchingly so, and Didion doesn't deviate from communicating, in absolute striking detail, the sense of alienation and disorientation that separates mourners from those who seem to be living "normal" lives. Grief is its own territory, separate from so-called normalcy. In so many ways, it is an illness, an affliction of the spirit and not one that can be cured in any one way. An aside- the photo of Didion inside the dustjacket is haunting. No question that those are the eyes of someone who has been scraped to the core, wounded and, presumably, still recovering. There is something beautiful in that portrait and, oddly, comforting. It is the face of a survivor, however hard it might be to live as one. This book will remain on my bookshelf and I expect I'll be thumbing through it for solace time and again. Reading it was both painful and cathartic and strangely comforting, with an intensity that left me awestruck. I am still amazed that she was able to produce such a beautifully written book in the throes of so much pain.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Journey Through Grief
*by K***R on October 8, 2025*

This is an amazing read of an author's first year, following the very sudden death of her husband, complicated by their adopted daughter in Intensive care with an unclear prognosis. She relives very detailed memories, trying to bring him back. Sometimes she revisits past events losing cognitive awareness. There is no one to report things to, share lunch with, critique her work, ask help from - they each had their own offices in their home. If one needed to travel for work, they often travelled together and the 'extra' would work in their hotel room. So although their writings and roles were different, there was a lot of collaborative work, along with sharing of ideas, quotes, incidents etc. So they were a couple who didn't spend much time apart, often working long days and then going out for late dinners. So, the loss was magnified. How can the world not stop? John has gone! A very worthwhile read!

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ A Masterpiece on Grief and Memory
*by E***S on August 29, 2025*

A Masterpiece on Grief and Memory Joan Didion’s *The Year of Magical Thinking* is one of those rare books that lingers in your head long after you’ve closed it. She writes with unflinching clarity about the sudden loss of her husband while caring for their gravely ill daughter, capturing the strange rhythm of grief—the disbelief, the looping thoughts, the need to control what can’t be controlled. What I admire most is how unsentimental the book is. Didion’s prose is stripped down, almost clinical at times, yet that restraint makes the emotions hit harder. She describes the irrational “magical thinking” that keeps her from giving away her husband’s shoes because, on some level, she can’t accept he won’t return. That vulnerability is universally relatable for anyone who has endured sudden loss. This isn’t just a memoir of mourning; it’s also a meditation on memory, marriage, and how fragile the structures of daily life really are. Didion weaves in medical details, literature, and reflections on the mind’s coping mechanisms, which gave me not only a window into her personal grief but also a deeper understanding of my own. It’s not a light read, but it’s immensely rewarding. The honesty, the craftsmanship, and the sheer courage it took to put these experiences into words are remarkable. Bottom line: A powerful, beautifully written meditation on love, loss, and the ways we try to make sense of the unthinkable—an essential read for anyone interested in the human experience of grief.

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Year of Magical Thinking: National Book Award Winner
- Blue Nights: A Memoir
- Slouching Towards Bethlehem: Essays (FSG Classics)

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*Last updated: 2026-03-22*