Us, After - Rachel Zimmerman
Product Details:
Paperback : 256 Pages
ISBN : 9781951631352
Cover design: Gwen Grafft
About the Book:
When a state trooper appeared at Rachel Zimmerman’s door to report that her husband had jumped to his death off a nearby bridge, she fell to her knees, unable to fully absorb the news. How could her husband, a devoted father and robotics professor at MIT, have committed such a violent act? How would she explain this to her young daughters? And could she have stopped him?
A longtime journalist, she probed obsessively, believing answers would help her survive. She interviewed doctors, suicide researchers and a man who jumped off the same bridge and lived.
Us, After examines domestic devastation and resurgence, digging into the struggle between public and private selves, life’s shifting perspectives, the work of motherhood, and the secrets we keep. In this memoir, Zimmerman confronts the unimaginable and discovers the good in what remains.
About the Author:
Rachel Zimmerman, an award-winning journalist, has been writing about health and wellness for more than two decades. She currently reports on mental health for The Washington Post. Previously, she worked as a staff reporter for The Wall Street Journal and a health reporter for WBUR, Boston’s NPR station, where she co-founded WBUR’s CommonHealth blog, and co-created The Checkup podcast with Slate. Her reporting and essays have appeared in The New York Times; The Atlantic; Vogue.com; O, the Oprah Magazine; New York Magazine’s, The Cut, and Slate, among other publications. Find her on at rachelzimmerman.net
“I emerged wiser about life, love, pain and resilience from this raw, honest and completely engaging memoir. It is a true gift to us all in the best way — you can’t put it down, and you emerge from it having gained a little bit more understanding of this incredibly beautiful and yet inescapably painful journey that we call life.”
“Us, After is one of the best memoirs I have read in a very long time It is poetic and lyrical, unflinching. and a testament to the strength of the human soul in dealing with unimaginable tragedy. We bleed for Zimmerman and her two daughters. We laugh and cry with them. And ultimately we marvel at their strength and resilience”
“Us, After: A Memoir of Love and Suicide is masterfully written and compelling in its substance and scope. Meticulously researched and deeply personal, Zimmerman’s book is a marvelous feat; I stayed up all night reading it. Page after page, I kept thinking, ‘How did she do this?’ This being mothering, surviving, chronicling, and asking hard questions of everyone, including herself.”
“This poignant, soul-baring memoir is truly one of the most moving accounts of grief, loss and resilience that I’ve read. While Zimmerman speaks frankly about the lasting pain of suicide, this beautifully-written book is ultimately a hopeful family love story, one that shows us how grief and happiness can co-exist.”
“Us, After is an unforgettable read. Rachel Zimmerman illuminates the impact of an unthinkable loss with remarkable grace, honesty and wit. She somehow manages to combine vulnerability with a reporter’s dogged curiosity all the while keeping the pages turning. Zimmerman cuts through personal tragedy and leaves you with something that we find too rarely in nonfiction today: hope.”
“Brilliant and moving…I am in awe of the ways in which Zimmerman unflinchingly writes about all sides of our humanity - including the impact of love, loss, devastation, and healing - in this beautiful memoir. A must read.”
“We need a more authentic, more honest discourse about mental health in this country, and Zimmerman’s bracing memoir about her husband’s suicide is an important contribution. Her unflinching prose, searing in its emotional intensity, bears witness to an incomprehensible loss, a confrontation with grief that stirs us—-and brings into the open a critical conversation we all can learn from.”
“The book is a triumph...Us, After wrestles vigorously and revealingly with the act of weaving life into narrative. Zimmerman embraces the knots and webs inherent in this process – the ways in which our own stories are inextricably intertwined with those of our parents, our kids, our partners and friends – and turns these tangles into art.”
“This is an amazing story of love, pain, tragedy, and ultimately resilience and hope. Zimmerman writes with searing honesty, capturing the full, messy humanity of all the characters, including herself.”