We’re delighted to welcome Arianna Rebolini to H&H Books to celebrate the release of her debut memoir, BETTER: A MEMOIR ABOUT WANTING TO DIE, on Tuesday, June 10 at 7 PM. Philly-based author Emma Copley Eisenberg (HOUSEMATES) will be Arianna’s conversation partner.
This event is free, but registration on Eventbrite is highly encouraged.
Copies of BETTER and HOUSEMATES are available in-store at H&H Books and on our ecommerce site, and they'll be available the evening of the event, too.
About BETTER: A MEMOIR ABOUT WANTING TO DIE:
After a decade of therapy and a stint in a psychiatric ward to treat suicidal depression, Arianna Rebolini was "better." She'd published her first book, enjoyed an influential, rewarding publishing job, and celebrated both a marriage and the birth of her first child--but none of it was enough to keep the desire to die at bay. One night, grappling with overwhelming debt and a prolonged depression, she composed goodbye letters to her husband and son while they slept just feet away.
In BETTER, Arianna Rebolini interweaves the story of her month-long period of crisis with decades of personal and family history, from her first cry for help in the fourth grade with a plastic knife, to her fears of passing down the dark seed of suicide to her own son, and her brother’s own life-threatening affliction.
To make sense of this dark desire, Arianna pored over the journals, memoirs, and writings of famous suicides, and eventually developed theories on what makes a person suicidal. Her curiosity was driven by the morbid, impossible need to understand what happens in the fatal moment between wanting to kill oneself and doing it—or, unthinkably, the moment between regretting the action and realizing it can’t be undone. When her own brother became institutionalized, Arianna realized that all of the patterns and trenchant insights could not crack the shell of his annihilating depression—and that the only way to help a person live is to address the societal factors that make them want to die.
"Brutally candid and ... also a strangely and beautifully optimistic reverie on coming clean about our darkest and most intimate struggles while slowly coming to terms with the idea that we might possibly be worthy of love, help, and...life." - Hannah Pittard, author of WE ARE TOO MANY
"There are readers for whom this may become the most important book they ever read." - Chloé Cooper Jones, author of EASY BEAUTY
About the Authors:
Arianna Rebolini is a writer from New York. In addition to her memoir, Better, she is the co-author, with Katie Heaney, of the novel Public Relations. Formerly the Books Editor at BuzzFeed News, her criticism, essays, and features have been featured in The Atlantic, The Guardian, Esquire, TIME, The Cut, Vulture, O Quarterly, and elsewhere. She is a member of the National Book Critics Circle and has been awarded residencies at the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts as well as the Writers’ Colony at Dairy Hollow. She lives in Queens with her husband, son, and two cats. Instagram: @arianna_rebolini
Emma Copley Eisenberg is the author of the novel Housemates and the nonfiction book The Third Rainbow Girl, which was a New York Times Notable Book and Editor’s Choice of 2020, as well as a finalist for an Edgar Award, a Lambda Literary Award, and an Anthony Award, among other honors. Her fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in Granta, Esquire, The New Republic, Lux, The Washington Post Magazine, VQR, and many other publications. She lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts. Her short story collection, Fat Swim, is forthcoming from Hogarth in 2026. Instagram: @frumpenberg
Questions? Email events@theheadandthehand.com with any questions and follow us @theheadandthehand on Instagram.