The Grief of Others

The Ryries have suffered a loss: the death of a baby just fifty-seven hours after his birth. Without words to express their grief, the parents, John and Ricky, try to return to their previous lives. The couple's children, ten-year-old Biscuit and thirteen-year-old Paul, responding to the unnamed tensions around them, begin to act out in exquisitely idiosyncratic ways. But as the family members scatter into private, isolating grief, an unexpected visitor arrives, and they find themselves growing more alert to the hurt, humor, warmth, and burdens of others—to the grief that is part of every human life but that also carries within it the power to draw us together.

Wendy Moniz

Ricky Ryrie

Trevor St. John

John Ryrie

Oona Laurence

Biscuit Ryrie

Jeremy Shinder

Paul Ryrie

Sonya Harum

Jessica Safransky

Mike Faist

Gordie Joiner

Rachel Dratch

Madeleine Berkowitz

Chris Conroy

Lance Oprisu

Jo Mei

Salesperson

Jessica Pimentel

Ms. Nuñez

Juliet Adair Pritner

Radiologist

Henry Gagliardi

Young Paul Ryrie