Joan Didion’s Year of Magical Thinking is wonderful, and terrifyingly sad. This non-fiction account is of the year following the death of her husband, something that happened nearly entirely by surprise, and the year she spends noticing every instant of that night, and detailing the places they had been, the way they had grown together.

This book has ranked on many of the top lists of 2005, and their reviews will be much more compelling than mine here, so read them, or better, this book. It is one of my favourites for the year, and certainly a story that will stay with me for a long time.