Love & Loss: A Story About Life, Death and Rebirth [Paperback]

Jane Bay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 18, 2007

"Jane Bay takes us through her personal process of overcoming the death of her Tibetan daughter that culminates in an uplifting conclusion, despite the inherently tragic circumstances that are at the heart of the story." (Deepak Chopra)

In her compelling memoir Love & Loss – A Story About Life, Death and Rebirth, Jane Bay gives us a glimpse of the invisible web of connectedness between us and its power to help heal even the deepest of wounds. In sharing the loss of her Tibetan foster daughter, Namgyal Youdon, Bay offers a rare opportunity to travel through the agonizing process of grieving and experience the power and healing of unconditional love. The story is played out in the rich fabric of the cultural history of Tibetan Buddhism inside Tibet, India and America.

Written as an "e-mail diary," Love & Loss is based on e-mails Bay sent out immediately after Namgyal died, replies she received from her dearest friends, e-mails from Namgyal’s brothers (one in Tibet and one in India, before and after Namgyal’s death) and e-mails that she and Namgyal exchanged during the last two years of Namgyal’s life. Brief narratives interwoven throughout the e-mails complete the story.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jane Bay has worked at Lucasfilm Ltd. in Marin County, California for twenty-nine years. She is currently working on two other books: Growing Up Southern – Stories from the Attic of Childhood Memories and an anthology of short stories entitled The Magic of New Mexico.

Product Details

• Paperback: 415 pages
• Publisher: Clear Light Pub; 1 edition (June 18, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574160885
• ISBN-13: 978-1574160888
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,608,587 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Immediacy and Impermanence, August 16, 2006

By 

M. Turner - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love & Loss: A Story About Life, Death and Rebirth (Paperback)

The construction of the book through emails linked by her narrative is very effective. Much of the dialog, with its timeliness and spontaneity, could not have happened without email. The breaks in the flow this created, for other people's comfort and suggestions about love, and loss, was very effective for the subject of this book. For the reader, they created good opportunities for ideas to occur, and for my thoughts to veer off into the relationships between what Jane Bay endured and described as she traveled through the love-growth and grieving journeys with her daughter, and situations that all of us have experienced - - and will again. The reader is left better-armed for the future grievings that must lie in wait.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique and Compelling look at a difficult subject, November 11, 2009

By 

K. Hanna - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Love & Loss: A Story About Life, Death and Rebirth (Paperback)

I was immediately struck by the authors' willingness to share her sorrow and her healing with her friends, her community and ultimately readers at large by writing this book.

Loss is never easy and is something we all will deal with eventually in our life time. Trying to understand it and embrace the part of loss that allows us to grow, heal and move on with grace and compassion is a concept that Ms. Bay explores with great profoundness in her novel.

Reading this book in the 21st century with the many email communication throughout the story, I thought of the irony that a technological device so recently invented was what empowered and helped a woman struggling with the death of her child in far away Tibet.

This is a book that does not shy away from the sadness and the despair. And the reader is a better person for having taken the journey.

1.0 out of 5 stars Self indulgent claptrap, August 1, 2009

By 

Cookiewise "cookiewise" (California USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Love & Loss: A Story About Life, Death and Rebirth (Paperback)

Terribly written shrink session better left on the couch. "Finding" oneself is hardly a journey that needs a boring book like this to discuss. Getting over the loss of a child is hard, but this metaphysical b.s. is shallow beyond belief.