Sylvia Plath and her two young children sought refuge with friends Jillian and Gerry Becker in their north London home just before Plath returned to her apartment and committed suicide.

Giving Up is Jillian Becker's intimate account of that brief but extraordinary time with Sylvia during the winter of 1963. It is an unsparing, clear-eyed document of the events surrounding Sylvia's final days and suicide: her physical and emotional state, her grief over Hughes' infidelity, her mysterious meeting with an unknown companion the night before her suicide, and the bleak, harsh aftermath of her small funeral.

Becker recounts the bitterness and rancour surrounding Plath's death, defying years of censorship by Hughes and his family. Amid the tragedy, Giving Up is also a beautifully rendered portrait of a friendship between two very different women.