"A vocabulary for facing what we've long been denied." – Francisco Javier Burgos

"An original, reflective, and accessible read that will open your mind and heart." – Gail Rubin

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The book uses punctuation as a metaphor to explore loss, death, and transformation – showing how endings shape beginnings, and how individuals and societies can better navigate uncertainty, continuity, and change.

Published on 30 July 2026 by Intermundia Libri (paperback and Kindle on Amazon)

The Punctuation of Loss offers a fresh and imaginative lexicon to understand how we experience endings – and how we begin again.  Using the metaphor of punctuation, it explores how the marks that structure our sentences can also illuminate the ways we navigate loss, death, and transition.  The full stop, comma, ellipsis, colon, and semicolon become lenses through which to reflect on grief, ambiguity, rupture, and continuity, drawing on insights from literature, philosophy, psychology, medicine, and cultural traditions across time.

The first part of the book focuses on personal experience: how loss shapes our lives from the outset, and how stories, rituals, and language help us make sense of mortality.  It shows how we rehearse loss through narrative and imagination, and how different cultures have developed ways to live with uncertainty and paradox.

The second part expands this lens to the collective level.  Moving from death to the metaphor of divorce, it examines how societies and institutions manage transformation and shared loss.  It explores political systems under strain, economic models confronting limits, environmental crises rooted in historical injustice, and the difficulties faced by contracting global institutions.  Practical lived examples are provided on the punctuation of loving and punctuation of plumbing.

Blending personal reflection with institutional analysis, the book argues that loss is not merely something to endure, but something that can guide renewal.  By learning how to “punctuate” endings differently, we may find more humane, conscious ways to navigate change – from the intimate to the planetary.

In this two-minute video I explain why I wrote the book and what it is about.

The paper Lessons from loss: an opinion on multilateral transition after 20 years inside UNAIDS published in September 2026 applies the lexicon in an organizational context.

The MIILL framework – Making Individuals & Institutions Loss Literate – is free guidance for any situation involving loss.

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