Everyone knows someone who's sick or suffering. Yet when a friend or relative is under duress we often feel uncertain about how to cope.

Letty Cottin Pogrebin has distilled the stories of veterans of serious illness into a pragmatic guide of usable wisdom. Infused with sensitivity, warmth and humor, it is invaluable for anyone rising to the challenges of this important and demanding passage of friendship.

Pogrebin is a writer, lecturer, social justice activist and founding editor of Ms. Magazine.