The Pummeled Heart: Finding Peace Through Pain

If you have suffered the loss of a loved one, this book offers some simple, basic ideas to help you recover. I found it very comforting and helpful after my daughter died. It's an easy read, but powerful.

Buy this book before any other if you have experienced ANY kind of loss.I never write reviews--but felt compelled to write this one in order to congratulate the author, and to encourage anyone who is experiencing sadness, loss, grief, or anxiety of any sort to read this book. Although the content is somewhat centered towards religious feeling, and might initially turn off the irreligious reader such as myself, please read on. Unlike other books of this nature I found the author's insight tremendously helpful in this area, and not at all dogmatic or facile. She questions her faith intelligently and compellingly. Her experience with profound loss qualifies her to write this book as well--her journey through loss has been painful indeed. In addition, reading this was an education for me--her frequent references to authors and spiritual leaders, and her quotations of the same, are greatly edifying and generous--it is wonderful to find a writer who is secure enough to turn to another's words. This book is profound, well written, easy to read, and hugely comforting.

Antoinette Bosco has written a thoughtful, honest and intelligent book that offers true insight into the question of how a person suffering with grief can move from staggering tragedy and loss to a richer personal wisdom and closer connection to God. She weaves inspiring stories of people who have suffered and transcended tragedy with a probing search for meaning as she shares her personal journey toward peace following the deaths of her own two sons by suicide and murder. In dealing with my own grief, I kept thinking, "There must be a way to turn this pain and horror into something good." This book provides a conceptual framework within which one might do exactly that. I highly recommend it for people who, having been struck by tragedy, are struggling to believe that life can be good again...and perhaps, that the searing pain of grief can even lead eventually to a greater joy in the depths of one's soul.