The Bright Hour

Zusatztext 51427104 Informationen zum Autor Nina Riggs received her MFA in poetry in 2004 and published a book of poems, Lucky, Lucky , in 2009. She wrote about life with metastatic breast cancer on her blog, Suspicious Country ; her recent work has appeared in The Washington Post and The New York Times. She lived with her husband and sons and dogs in Greensboro, North Carolina. She is the author of The Bright Hour . Klappentext INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER "Stunningheartrendingthis year's When Breath Becomes Air." ?Nora Krug, The Washington Post "Beautiful and haunting." ?Matt McCarthy, MD, USA TODAY "Deeply affectingsimultaneously heartbreaking and funny." ?People (Book of the Week) "Vivid, immediate." ?Laura Collins-Hughes, The Boston Globe Starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews Publishers Weekly Library Journal Best Books of 2017 Selection by The Washington Post Most Anticipated Summer Reading Selection by The Washington Post Entertainment Weekly Glamour The Seattle Times Vulture InStyle Bookpage Bookriot Real Simple The Atlanta Journal-Constitution * The New York Times bestseller by poet Nina Riggs, mother of two young sons and the direct descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, is "a stunningheart-rending meditation on lifeIt is this year's When Breath Becomes Air" (The Washington Post). We are breathless but we love the days. They are promises. They are the only way to walk from one night to the other. Poet and essayist Nina Riggs was just thirty-seven years old when initially diagnosed with breast cancer?one small spot. Within a year, she received the devastating news that her cancer was terminal. How does a dying person learn to live each day "unattached to outcome"? How does one approach the moments, big and small, with both love and honesty? How does a young mother and wife prepare her two young children and adored husband for a loss that will shape the rest of their lives? How do we want to be remembered? Exploring motherhood, marriage, friendship, and memory, Nina asks: What makes a meaningful life when one has limited time? "Profound and poignant" (O, The Oprah Magazine), The Bright Hour is about how to make the most of all the days, even the painful ones. It's about the way literature, especially Nina's direct ancestor, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and her other muse, Montaigne, can be a balm and a form of prayer. Brilliantly written and exceptionally moving, it's a "deeply affecting memoir, a simultaneously heartbreaking and funny account of living with loss and the specter of death. As Riggs lyrically, unflinchingly details her reality, she finds beauty and truth that comfort even amid the crushing sadness" (People, Book of the Week). Tender and heartwarming, The Bright Hour "is a gentle reminder to cherish each day" (Entertainment Weekly, Best New Books) and offers us this important perspective: "You can read a multitude books about how to die, but Riggs, a dying woman, will show you how to live" (The New York Times Book Review, Editor's Choice). Leseprobe The Bright Hour 1. One Small Spot The call comes when John is away at a conference in New Orleans. Let's not linger on the thin light sifting into our bedroom as I fold laundry, the last leaves shivering on the willow oak outsidepreparing to let go but not yet letting go. The heat chattering in the vent. The dog working a spot on her leg. The new year hanging in the air like a question mark. The phone buzzing on the bed. It's almost noon. Out at the school, the kids must be lining up for recess, their fingers tunneling into their gloves like...

PRAISE FOR THE BRIGHT HOUR BY NINA RIGGS

“This book is carefully, thoughtfully, and beautifully written. I think it should be required reading for the entire human race. Nina Riggs is my hero and after you read this she will be your hero, too.”
—Elin Hilderbrand, New York Times bestselling author of The Identicals

"The Bright Hour is a stunning work, a heart-rending meditation on life—not just how to appreciate it while you’re living it, but how to embrace its end, too. It is this year’s When Breath Becomes Air."
—Nora Krug, Washington Post

"Beautiful and haunting...a thoughtful and heartbreaking exploration of what makes life meaningful in a person's remaining days...Buried within this agonizing tale are moments of levity — I laughed out loud many, many times — and flashes of poetry...This book provides a stunning look at that experience and has forever changed my understanding of the illness narrative. It’s a book every doctor and patient should read…It's hard not to compare The Bright Hour to When Breath Becomes Air, Paul Kalanithi's best-selling memoir about his battle with lung cancer. Both were in their late 30s when they discovered they were dying, and both write spare prose with a poignancy that is uncommon. However, Riggs' book is markedly different in tone and content. It's more humorous and less philosophical — but equally moving."
—Matt McCarthy, MD, USA Today (4/4 stars)

"Poet Nina Riggs was only 37, the mother of two young sons, when she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Within a year she had lost her mother to multiple myeloma—and learned her own cancer was terminal as well. Riggs died last February, leaving behind this deeply affecting memoir, a simultaneously heartbreaking and funny account of living with loss and the specter of death. As she lyrically, unflinchingly details her reality, she finds beauty and truth that comfort even amid the crushing sadness."
—People (Book of the Week)

"Profound and poignant...superb...I put down The Bright Hour a slightly different, and better, person - unbearably sad and also feeling, as Riggs did, 'the hug of the world.'"
—Kelly Corrigan, O Magazine

“You can read a multitude books about how to die, but Riggs, a dying woman, will show you how to live.”
—New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice)

“I think every writer is just trying to find the words to say essentially: This is what life feels like. And in this book, Nina Riggs did that—she found the words. And they’re beautiful, and heartbreaking, and transcendent.”
—Cristina Henriquez, critically acclaimed author of The Book of Unknown Americans

“The Bright Hour is filled with life. We are so lucky that in the last months of her life Nina wrote The Bright Hour as a gift—to her family, to her husband, to her children, and also as a gift to us.”
—Alice Hoffman, New York Times bestselling author of Faithful and The Rules of Magic

“Her memoir is powerful and gripping and also, brilliantly, laugh-out-loud funny—the perfect reminder that every day here is a gift, and that every day is an opportunity to leave an indelible mark on those who you must leave behind.”
—goop

"A vivid, immediate dispatch from the front lines of mortality and a record of a life by someone who wasn't done living yet. But there is nothing maudlin about it...her warm portraits of each of [the members of her closest circle] are a large part of the book's emotional power. So is something we don't notice fully until it's gone: the strength and clarity of Riggs's voice, which never faded on the page, and which we won't get to hear again."
—Boston Globe

“The antithesis of grim: an irreverent and poignant Baedeker through the country of illness.”
—Wall Street Journal

“This gorgeous chronicle of the last year of her life—brimming with seemingly mundane details about parenti…