*Finalist, Hubert Evans Nonfiction Prize
A genuinely moving, funny, and inventive account of loss and grief, mental illness and suicide, from film and TV producer Liz Levine (Story of a Girl), written in the aftermath of the deaths of her sister and best friend.
I feel like I might be a terrible person to be laughing in these moments. But it turns out, Iâm not alone.
In November of 2016, Liz Levineâs younger sister, Tamara, reached a breaking point after years of living with mental illness. In the dark hours before dawn, she sent a final message to her family then killed herself.
In Nobody Ever Talks About Anything But the End, Liz weaves the story of what happened to Tamara with another significant deathâthat of Lizâs childhood love, Judson, to cancer. She writes about her relationship with Judson, Tamaraâs struggles, the conflicts that arise in a family of challenging personalities, and how death casts a long shadow. This memorable account of life and loss is haunting yet filled with dark humorâTamara emails her family when Trump is elected to check if sheâs imagining things again, Liz discovers a banana has been indicted as a whistleblower in an alleged family conspiracy, and a little niece declares Tamaraâs funeral the âmost fun ever!â
With honesty, Liz exposes the raw truths about grief and mourning that we often shy away fromâand almost never share with others. And she reveals how, in the midst of death, lifeâwith all its messy complicationsâmust also be celebrated.