There is a lot of nonfiction out there about grief, from the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross classic On Grief and Grieving to Joan Didion’s The Year of Magical Thinking (and Blue Nights , for that matter). But it can be a tricky thing, trying to transform the essentially human yet distinctly intimate experience of loss into fodder for a novel.

Photo: Courtesy of Aisha Muharrar

That’s exactly what television writer Aisha Muharrar has done with her new book Loved One , however. Although the story that she tells about Julia—an LA-based jewelry designer who, reeling from the death of her close friend (and longtime situationship) Gabe, builds an unlikely relationship with Gabe’s most recent ex, Elizabeth—is a painful one, the comedic voice that Muharrar has honed on shows including Parks and

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