A Healing Touch: True Stories of Life, Death, and Hospice [Hardcover]

Richard Russo (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 25, 2008

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Richard Russo and five other Maine authors here prove that the close of life need not be filled with darkness, when hospice help is at hand. These writers recount intensely personal and profoundly moving end-of-life accounts that cover a wide spectrum of human experience. All six authors are donating their royalties to a Maine hospice; Down East will also donate 10 percent of proceeds to the same cause.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist Russo (Empire Falls, 2001) edits and, with five others, contributes to this tiny collection of stories of people who have benefited from grief intervention via hospice. While the focus is parochial—all contributors are Mainers who worked with the Waterville, Maine, hospice—the message is universal: hospice counseling is not, as many believe, limited to preparation for death but may help those who have already lost a loved one. In fact, the majority of these accounts are about families who have experienced a child’s sudden, unexpected death: the mother of marine Major Jay T. Aubin, the first American casualty in Operation Iraqi Freedom; the parents of a teenage suicide victim; those of a son killed in a car crash; and a father who lost his infant son. Members of several of these families now voluntarily give their time and expertise to the Waterville hospice. At once heartbreaking and hopeful, the stories become all the more poignant as each author personalizes them with references to his or her own experience of loss. --Donna Chavez

About the Author

Richard Russo is the author of Empire Falls, which won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize in fiction and was also named the year’s best novel by Time magazine. He is also the author of several other novels. Russo lives in Camden, Maine.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Down East Books; 1 edition (February 25, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0892727519
• ISBN-13: 978-0892727513
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #546,842 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars From one of the Writers, March 31, 2008

By 

Gerry Boyle (Waterville, Maine) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Healing Touch: True Stories of Life, Death, and Hospice (Hardcover)

As one of the writers who contributed to this book, I feel I have to add to the description above. This is not a sad book; it is truly an inspiring book. I say this having been moved by the experience of interviewing my subjects-- a couple who lost their eldest son in a car accident, plummeted to the absolute depths of despair, and emerged, because of a hospice group for grieving parents, better people.
Reading these six essays will leave you encouraged about the strength of people who are just like us. It's a hopeful book and a powerful one. So excuse the five stars (are authors supposed to do that?), but I feel strongly that this is very much worth reading.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Healing Touch inspires and conveys Hope!, April 16, 2008

By 

Dale Clark (Maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Healing Touch: True Stories of Life, Death, and Hospice (Hardcover)

If you are looking for a book that offers hope, inspiration, some tears, lots of smiles, and then leaves you wanting more, this is the book for you. A Healing Touch is a collection of six stories, and though written about people who live in Maine, they could be about anyone, anywhere life happens. The stories are written by six talented authors who craft their respective words with compassion, keen insights and skill. I personally know each of the subjects in this book - some I have known for many years - and in reading A Healing Touch I learned more about their struggles, hearts and souls than all of my time and conversations with them could begin to convey. They each shared their journey with amazing grace, honesty and with the genuine hope their sharing would help others who are faced with what seems like insurmountable odds for survival following a loss. Upon reading the final page and closing its cover you will no doubt, as I did, feel the need to simply sit and hold the book to your heart.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a healing touch, March 13, 2008

By 

Barbara Currie (vassalboro maine) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Healing Touch: True Stories of Life, Death, and Hospice (Hardcover)

i bought this book on sunday and was so very moved by the stories in it. i lost my husband on dec. 6 2007. it was nice to read about local people and how hospice helped them with their grief. i to am going to hospice and am amazed at the people there and their commpassion for helping others.i started to read it and could not put it down. it is very well written and i was also very glad to see local people writing it. i really enjoyed the book and would highly recommend everyone to buy it. it is not a long book but it is worth every penny. i also would like to see more of these books written. there are so many people out there that have amazing stories to tell and i really feel that people should be reading about them and all the help that this wonderful group of people have to offer. thsnk you