Blue Nights

From one of America’s most powerful writers comes a work of profound honesty about grief, memory, and the passage of time. In Blue Nights, Joan Didion reflects on the death of her daughter, Quintana Roo Dunne, exploring the fears, doubts, and questions that accompany parenthood, illness, and aging.

The narrative opens on July 26, 2010, as Didion recalls what would have been her daughter’s wedding anniversary, evoking vivid memories of Quintana’s childhood in Malibu, Brentwood, and Holmby Hills. Through these recollections, Didion examines her own role as a parent, asking the candid and haunting questions every parent knows: How did she miss the signs? Could she have done better? And, ultimately, are we ever truly known by those we love?

Seamlessly intertwined with reflections on her own aging, Blue Nights is a moving meditation on loss, memory, and the fragile beauty of life.