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El año del pensamiento mágicosecond-hand

4.2 · 15 ratings on Open Library · 123 want to read it

2 editions · Personal development and relationships

from€12.90cover price from €12.95

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Total price with shipping, checked on 6 October 2026.

A memoir of the year after the sudden death of Joan Didion's husband, John Gregory Dunne, at the end of 2003, while their daughter Quintana was in intensive care. Didion goes over that death again and again, cares for her daughter through her illness and draws on medical and psychological research on grief. The title refers to magical thinking: believing that doing the right things can avert the inevitable, like being unable to give away her husband's shoes because he will need them when he comes back.

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Reading guide

About 6 hours of reading · Who it's for · Why people still read it · If you like it, read next
Who it's for
For anyone going through grief or wanting to understand it, and for readers of literary non-fiction. Didion writes with a reporter's detachment and almost no raw outpouring: the pain shows in how she observes her own changes.
Why people still read it
In 2005 it received the National Book Award for Nonfiction, and it reached the shortlists of both the Pulitzer and the National Book Critics Circle; The New York Times Book Review included it in 2024 among the best books of the 21st century. Didion adapted it for the stage in 2007, with Vanessa Redgrave directed by David Hare, and the play has also been staged in Barcelona and Madrid.

Written with the help of AI from todostuslibros and Wikipedia, without giving away the ending, and reviewed by a person.

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€34.70free shippingUsedISBN 9788439729075TWOFACESView ↗
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Editions (2)

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