Synopses & Reviews
This poignant love story of a father for his son is at once funny, heartbreaking, and hopeful
. In it a young man teaches his entire family “a new way to die” with wit, candor, and, always, remarkable grace. This emotionally riveting account probes the heart without sentimentality or self-pity.
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 smart, charismatic young man with a promising law career, and an unlikely candidate for tragedy. That his young wife is pregnant with their first child makes the disease’s return all the more devastating. Despite the crushing magnitude of his diagnosis and the cruel course of the illness, Adam’s growing weakness evokes in him an unexpected strength.
This is the story of one last summer and the young man who lived it as honestly and faithfully as possible. We meet Adam in many phases of his growing up, but always through the narrow lens of his undying hope, when in the final season of his life he becomes his family’s (and his father’s) spiritual leader. Honest in its every dimension, Stations of the Heart is an unforgettable book about life and death and the terrible blessing of saying good-bye.
Synopsis
A poignant, emotionally riveting, profoundly heart-felt but unsentimental love story of a father for his son--at once funny, heartbreaking, and hopeful--as the young man teaches his family "a new way to die," with wit, candor, and, always, remarkable grace.At the book's opening, Richard Lischer's son, Adam, calls to tell his father that his melanoma has returned. A smart, charismatic young man with a promising law career, Adam seems an unlikely candidate for tragedy. That his young wife is pregnant with their first child makes the disease's return all the more devastating. Yet, despite the crushing magnitude of his diagnosis and the cruel turns the disease takes, Adam's growing weakness evokes in him an unexpected strength. In the last summer of his life, he becomes his family's (and his father's) spiritual leader. True in its every dimension, Stations of the Heart is an unforgettable testament to the power of faith and family.
About the Author
RICHARD LISCHER holds degrees from Washington University and Concordia Seminary, and a PhD in theology from the University of London. He served in two parishes before joining the faculty of Duke Divinity School, where he has taught for more than thirty years. He is the author of many books, including
Open Secrets: A Memoir of Faith and Discovery. He and his wife live in Orange County, North Carolina.