Marie Mutsuki Mockett © Stephanie Badini_100dpi

While grieving the loss of her father, grandmother and grandfather just before she herself became a mother, Marie Mustsuki Mockett searched for solace for her grief in Japan, the homeland of her own mother. Not long after the tsunami, which deeply affected her own family, she travelled the country to discover what Japan’s spiritual teachers had to share about the Japanese view of death and grief. The result is her highly acclaimed memoir, Where the Dead Pause and the Japanese Say Goodbye: A Journey. With the art of a true storyteller, Marie evokes that moment in Japan’s history, and her own, while giving us a glimpse of Japanese experiences of loss.