Written by a Queer woman of North African and Middle Eastern descent, Human(e) takes a radically non-pathology-based approach to grief and loss. In this intimate and reflective auto-ethnographic book, Bensoussan asserts that grief is a biological imperative; a life-sustaining necessity that is vital to our survival. Human(e) explores how our species has been living with, and metabolizing loss, well before there were licensed professionals and accredited institutions. Bensoussan examines the inadequacy of the idea that grief is normal, as grief goes well beyond the Western-colonial binary of normal and abnormal. Grief is human, and to grieve is to be human. Rachelle seamlessly and beautifully weaves together her vast professional expertise on grief with her own personal lived experiences of loss. Human(e) is a must read for anyone learning to live without.

Rachelle Bensoussan holds a master’s degree in Thanatology and has spent the last fifteen years advancing grief literacy across Canada and the United States. She is a former faculty member at both McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine and King’s University College. Rachelle is a two-time nominee for the Association of Death Education and Counselling’s Academic Educator Award and Community Educator Award. Rachelle is a Queer woman of North-African & Middle Eastern descent. She currently lives in Toronto with her brilliant wife, her magical daughter, and her highly dysregulated Yorkshire Terrier. You can learn more about Rachelle and her work at: www.griefliteracy.ca

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