How to Move On: An Unfinished Memoir of Loss, Love, and Surviving Your Family

How to Move On: An Unfinished Memoir of Loss, Love, and Surviving Your Family is Joel Yanofsky’s final, deeply personal work—an unfinished yet profoundly moving meditation on grief, love, and the complexities of family. Known for his wit and insight, Yanofsky grapples with the loss of his beloved sisters and parents, all while navigating the joys and challenges of marriage, fatherhood, and a writing life.

This posthumously completed book, pieced together by close friends and literary collaborators Bryan Demchinsky and Elaine Kalman Naves, expands on the themes explored in Bad Animals, his acclaimed memoir about raising his autistic son. Here, Yanofsky turns inward, confronting the weight of cumulative loss while celebrating the enduring bonds of love. With self-deprecating humor and keen eye, he finds meaning in the rituals of mourning, the absurdities of everyday life, and the unspoken tensions within families.

At once tender and sharp, How to Move On is a poignant farewell from a writer who never shied away from difficult truths. It is a book about death, yes, but it is equally a book about life—its messiness, its unpredictability, and the people who make it worth living.