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  • Published: 15 April 2015
  • ISBN: 9781101910474
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $45.00

Stations Of The Heart

Parting with a Son





A father's funny, heartbreaking, and hopeful story about his beloved son--in which a young man teaches his family "a new way to die" with wit, candor, and remarkable grace.

A father’s heartbreaking and hopeful story about his beloved son, in which a young man teaches his family “a new way to die” with wit, candor, and grace.

"A book after my own heart, profound, gorgeous, deeply spiritual and human, beautifully written, heartbreaking, but also, because of the writer's wisdom and spirit, triumphant." —Anne Lamott 

As the book opens, Richard Lischer’s son, Adam, calls to tell his father, a professor of divinity at Duke University, that his cancer has returned. Adam is a charismatic young man with a promising law career, and that his wife is pregnant with their first child makes the disease’s return all the more devastating. Despite the cruel course of the illness, Adam’s growing weakness evokes in him a remarkable spiritual strength. This is the story of one last summer, lived as honestly and faithfully as possible. Deeply moving and utterly lacking in sentimentality or self-pity, Stations of the Heart is an unforgettable book about life and death and the terrible blessing of saying good-bye.

  • Published: 15 April 2015
  • ISBN: 9781101910474
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 272
  • RRP: $45.00

Praise for Stations Of The Heart

  • "Stations of the Heart is a book after my own heart, profound, gorgeous, deeply spiritual and human, beautifully written, heartbreaking, but also, because of the writer's wisdom and spirit, triumphant." --Anne Lamott
  • "Quite extraordinary.... Lischer's only son, Adam, died of rapidly metastasizing melanoma [at] 33.... He said he'd had a charmed life, and part of what is impressive about his questioning father's chastely worded, clear-eyed account is that we come to appreciate that." --Booklist
  • "A fond view of a father-son relationship and a loving tribute from a minister to a son who chose a different spiritual path in his life and to his death." --Kirkus