How to Lose Everything

Christa Couture

Image | BOOK COVER: How to Lose Everything by Christa Couture

(Douglas & McIntyre)

Christa Couture has come to know every corner of grief — its shifting blurry edges, its traps, its pulse of love at the centre and the bittersweet truth that sorrow is a powerful and wise emotion.
From the amputation of her leg as a cure for bone cancer at a young age, to her first child's single day of life, the heart transplant and subsequent death of her second child, the divorce born of grief and then the thyroidectomy that threatened her career as a professional musician, How to Lose Everything delves into the heart of loss. Couture bears witness to the shift in perspective that comes with loss, and how it can deepen compassion for others, expand understanding, inspire a letting go of little things and plant a deeper feeling for what matters. At the same time, Couture's writing evokes the joy and lightness that both precede and eventually follow grief, as well as the hope and resilience that grow from connections with others. (From Douglas & McIntyre)
Christa Couture is a writer, musician and broadcaster who is currently based in Toronto. Her work has appeared in CBC Arts(external link) and CBC Parents(external link) and she has been a columnist on CBC Radio's The Next Chapter(external link). How to Lose Everything is her first book.

Interviews with Christa Couture

Media Audio | Day 6 : How to Lose Everything: Christa Couture's memoir about loss, strength, music, hope — and more loss

Caption: Christa Couture lost her leg to cancer when she was a child and her two sons died as babies. In her new memoir she shares her stories of grief, but also shares how she expressed herself through music and writing and how that helped her heal.

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Media Audio | The Candy Palmater Show : Singer-songwriter Christa Couture finds relief in writing about romantic heartache

Caption: Singer-songwriter Christa Couture has a new home, a new leg, and a new album. It's all part of moving forward from the tragedy of the past: from her teenage battle with cancer, to the loss of her two sons.

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Media | 'How do I carry this?': What this mother learned about grief after losing 2 children

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Media Audio | Unreserved : Christa Couture on love, loss and the power of music to hold things together

Caption: For much of her life, Christa Couture has turned to music to find healing. And while themes of loss play throughout much of her personal journey, her music doesn't dwell in that darkness.

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Media | Why I write birthday cards to the children I've lost

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