How to Let Go

The New York Times bestselling author of The In-Between presents a vulnerable, moving memoir about the unraveling of her marriage, and her evolving journey to find beauty in life's endings and beginnings.

As a hospice nurse, Hadley Vlahos helps people navigate grief and major life transitions. After the success of her first book, The In-Between, Vlahos’s professional career was on the rise, and from the outside, everything looked picture-perfect. But behind the scenes, her personal life was falling apart, and it was now her turn to confront the loss and upheaval that she spent her days counseling her patients through.

In How to Let Go, Vlahos recounts her journey of rebuilding her life and coming into her own after her fairytale marriage turned out to be not what it seemed. With grace and vulnerability, Vlahos reveals what it took to walk away from her relationship, and how she put herself back together after she left. Along the way, she discusses the challenging situations people encounter when a loved one is in hospice, like taking advantage of the time you have left while simultaneously dealing with anticipatory grief, and how—or even whether—to say goodbye to an estranged parent. And she describes the myriad ways in which her patients taught her that letting go is not a failure, but an act of profound courage. 

Like her beloved first memoir, How to Let Go is a beautiful reminder that every moment—even a difficult and complicated one—is an opportunity: Until we take our final breath, we always have the ability to connect, to grow, and to begin again.