Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience – classics which will endure for generations to come.

A single person is missing for you, and the whole world is empty.

John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion saw their daughter fall ill. At first they thought it was flu, then she was placed on life support. Days later, the Dunnes were sitting down to dinner when John suffered a massive and fatal coronary.

This powerful book is Didion’s ‘attempt to make sense of the weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I ever had about death, about illness’. The result is a personal yet universal portrait of marriage and life, in good times and bad, from one of the defining voices of American literature.

A functional medicine approach to healing Irritable Bowel Syndrome, from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Hashimoto’s Protocol.

You don’t have to accept bloating, cramping, urgency or pain as your 'normal.' When clinical pharmacist Izabella Wentz was first diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome, she was told her digestion was simply 'overly sensitive.' Like many people, she tried to live with the discomfort, until she discovered there were real, treatable reasons for her symptoms. And the same can be true for you. In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn how to uncover the true source of your symptoms and create a personalised healing plan to restore your gut and your life.

You’ll discover how to:

• Understand what normal digestion really looks like
• Identify potential root causes behind IBS symptoms
• Explore testing options – from gluten intolerance and SIBO to enzyme function and triggering infections
• Remove reactive foods and triggers with targeted nutrition strategies
• Restore microbial balance
• Rebuild digestive function with tailored supplements and lifestyle shifts
• Manage symptoms gently while you work toward lasting healing

Whether you’ve been struggling with IBS for years or were just diagnosed, this is your invitation to dig deeper, heal smarter and reclaim your energy, confidence and well-being – with guidance from one of the world’s leading voices in root cause healing.

The essential guide to mental health from the bestselling author of The School of Life.

A Therapeutic Journey follows the arc from mental crisis and collapse to convalescence and recovery. Written with kindness, knowledge and sympathy, it is both a practical guide and a source of consolation and companionship in what might be some of our loneliest, most anguished moments.

Alain de Botton explores how we can cope with a variety of forms of mental pain and illness, from the mild to the severe. It considers how and why we might become ill; how we can explain things to friends, family and colleagues; how we can find our ways towards recovery; and how we can build resilience, so as to live wisely alongside our difficulties.

At heart this is a book about redemption - about regaining the thread of our lives, rediscovering meaning, and finding our way back to connection, warmth and joy

We are all addicted in some way. When we learn to identify our addiction, embrace our brokenness, and surrender to God, we begin to bring healing to ourselves and our world. In Breathing Under Water, Richard Rohr shows how the gospel principles in the Twelve Steps can free anyone from addiction - from an obvious dependence on alcohol or drugs to the more common but less visible addiction that we all have to sin. 'A must-read for any person who recognizes the need to go "inward" on their soul's journey to question what their relationship is with God, themselves, and others.' The Cord 'Rohr is a perfect writer on the subject of the 12 Steps. His easy-to-read book is essentially a commentary on each of the steps, with twelve chapters and a postscript that concisely tackles the big religious questions of human suffering, suffering with which addicts and their families are intimately acquainted. Jesus, Rohr answers, is no stranger to suffering . . . This is a good book for those in recovery from addiction and those who love them. Publishers Weekly 'Richard Rohr continues to guide us to greater wholeness . . . his books have helped countless souls, especially those who struggle with issues of brokenness and seek transformation.' National Catholic Reporter

The inspiring story of a world-champion sportsman and cancer warrior.

Few athletes hold a record comparable to that of Oscar Chalupsky. He made history at the age of fifteen as the first person to win both the Junior and Senior Ironman titles on the same day at the South African National Lifesaving Championships, he was the country’s spokesman at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, and he is a multiple-times global surfski champion, having won the internationally famous Molokai to Oahu World Surfski Marathon championships in Hawaii a record twelve times – his most recent victory being at the age of forty-nine.

Then, in 2019, he was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, an incurable bone marrow cancer and told he had six months to live. But as with everything else Oscar does, he is determined to emerge victorious. He continues to paddle kayaks, play golf, and with a combination of medical treatment, exercise, iron determination and unconquerable optimism, he has defied every doctor’s prediction to date. How does he do it?

In this book, Oscar relives some of his most exhilarating and nail-biting races, and shares the lessons he has learnt from winning on the international surf lifesaving, kayak and surfski circuits as well as running several successful businesses. The final chapters recount his courageous battle against cancer, the vital support of his family and friends, and his refusal to let the deadly disease dictate his life.

No Retreat, No Surrender is an uplifting account of grit, perseverance, talent and attitude, vividly capturing the determined mindset of an inspirational sporting legend.

Die dood van ’n geliefde bring intense hartseer mee. Dr. Henk Gous deel in Wanneer ’n geliefde sterf uit sy jare lange ervaring as berader asook sy persoonlike ervaring met die verlies van sy dogter. Hy is daarom ideaal toegerus om jou met wysheid en empatie op hierdie moeilike pad van rousmart te begelei. Elkeen van die 40 dagstukkies het plek om jou eie emosies, vrae aan God, ondraaglike pyn, selfs woede, en enige ander gedagtes neer te skryf. So sal hierdie boekie ’n joernaal wees van jou uniek persoonlike reis na aanvaarding, vertroosting, vrede en vreugde.

Ervaar God se troos en liefde sodat jy uiteindelik weer met vreugde kan leef totdat jy jou geliefdes eendag weer sien.

No question, we have a lot to worry about. Children, jobs, homes, health, finances, and more. The solution isn't to rid ourselves of the sources of anxiety--as if we could. Instead, we need to recognize that anxiety originates from a spiritual influence and that we can fight back using the God-given weapons of power, love, and a sound mind. Sharing her own story of emerging from the battle with anxiety, as well as the stories of others, Dr. Michelle Bengtson reminds you of your identity as a follower of Christ and of the peace he promises you in spite of everything. She provides tools to cope with the crushing emotional burden of anxiety now and, more importantly, shows you how to reclaim God's peace as a way of life so that you can break anxiety's grip.

I have both dyslexia and dyspraxia. I have decided to write this, probably a little too late as there is some great information out there but maybe I have a little bit of a different look on things.

Penned in 1925 during the aftermath of a nervous breakdown, On Being Ill is a groundbreaking essay by the Modernist giant Virginia Woolf that seeks to establish illness as a topic for discussion in literature. Delving into considerations of the loneliness and vulnerability experienced by those suffering from illness, as well as aspects of privilege others might have, the essay resounds with an honesty and clarity that still rings true today. 'Novels, one would have thought, would have been devoted to influenza, epic poems to typhoid, odes to pneumonia, lyrics to toothache. But no - with a few exceptions... literature does its best to maintain that its concern is with the mind; that the body is a sheet of plain glass through which the soul looks straight and clear, and, save for one or two passions such as desire and greed, is null, and negligible and non-existent.'

'Extraordinary . . . a profound and beautiful book . . . a moving meditation on grief and loss, but also a sparky celebration of joy, wonder and the miracle of love . . . Witty, wise, beautifully structured and written in clear, singing prose' - Sunday Times Longlisted for the 2022 National Book Award for Nonfiction Eighteen months before Kathryn Schulz's beloved father died, she met the woman she would marry. In Lost & Found, she weaves the stories of those relationships into a brilliant exploration of how all our lives are shaped by loss and discovery - from the maddening disappearance of everyday objects to the sweeping devastations of war, pandemic, and natural disaster; from finding new planets to falling in love. Three very different American families form the heart of Lost & Found: the one that made Schulz's father, a charming, brilliant, absentminded Jewish refugee; the one that made her partner, an equally brilliant farmer's daughter and devout Christian; and the one she herself makes through marriage. But Schulz is also attentive to other, more universal kinds of conjunction: how private happiness can coexist with global catastrophe, how we get irritated with those we adore, how love and loss are themselves unavoidably inseparable. The resulting book is part memoir, part guidebook to living in a world that is simultaneously full of wonder and joy and wretchedness and suffering - a world that always demands both our gratitude and our grief. A staff writer at the New Yorker and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Kathryn Schulz writes with curiosity, tenderness, erudition, and wit about our finite yet infinitely complicated lives. Crafted with the emotional clarity of C. S. Lewis and the intellectual force of Susan Sontag, Lost & Found is an uncommon book about common experiences. 'An extraordinary gift of a book, a tender, searching meditation on love and loss and what it means to be human. I wept at it, laughed with it, was entirely fascinated by it. I emerged feeling a little as if the world around me had been made anew.' - Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk

The worst thing that a parent can ever go through is the loss of a child. The pain, the emptiness, the guilt and the sadness that you feel, is like no other. Does it get any easier? Yes, it does. Will your heart ever mend? Yes, it will. But it does take time to heal. Jenny lost her little girl twenty-eight years ago - a long time. But had she healed? Not as much as she thought. That was until she decided to write this book and share her story with the world. "I'm sharing this heartbreaking time of my life to let other parents know that it's okay to feel the way they do. I want to let people know that talking about their feelings, their sorrow, their worries, their pain - but also their joy, could help them to grieve and be more at peace with themselves and the world around them - just like I have!" - Jenny Ford This book supports Child Bereavement UK by making a donation from every book sold. Please help Jenny to support this worthy cause.