In Again, Charles Douthat charts a profound journey through love, loss, and the complicated grace of survival. Moving from childhood’s luminous moments to the raw territories of grief, these elegies for his parents and sister transform personal sorrow into a larger meditation on how family shapes and haunts us: “They were gone for good. They light my way.” With remarkable tenderness, Douthat explores the ways we carry those we’ve lost, finding in memory not just pain but also unexpected mercy. From California beach towns to New England woodlands, these poems remind us that even our deepest wounds can open into moments of startling beauty and revelation.