" Life changes fast. Life changes in the instant. You sit down to dinner and life as you know it ends. " When Joan Didion's husband died suddenly of a massive heart attack, a partnership of 40 years ended a second. Just days before, the couple had seen their only daughter fall seriously ill. Despite the unshakable reality of her husband's death, Joan Didion's thinking was far from clown to earth - she found herself, for instance, keeping his shoes in case he returned. Slowly she realised that beneath all the ritual and words lay simple, aching truth - that she longed to perform an impossible trick and bring him back. This is the story of a year spent wishing ; a year of magical thinking.
