Freddie deBoer

Stephen Policoff's "A Ribbon For Your Hair"

Stephen Policoff’s new memoir, A Ribbon For Your Hair, chronicles the harrowing loss of his wife to lung cancer and his adopted daughter Anna to the rare Niemann‑Pick type C disease. The narrative intertwines personal grief with the bureaucratic nightmare of false child‑abuse accusations and a failed experimental drug trial. Policoff’s prose remains stark yet laced with dark humor, reflecting a New York‑city sensibility while refusing tidy resolutions. The book offers an unflinching look at mourning as an ongoing, ambiguous state rather than a linear journey toward closure.