Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
The World Looks Different Now takes readers behind the statistics and into the private world of a family whose lives are forever changed following the suicide of the family's older son less than three months before he was due to deploy to Afghanistan.
A journalist as well as a grieving mother, author Margaret Thomson instinctively turns to writing during the weeks, months, and even years following her son's death in an effort to make sense out of a seemingly senseless act that she never dreamed could happen. In The World Looks Different Now, she chronicles the grueling journey she and her husband, along with their surviving son, are forced to embark upon as they move toward eventual--if only partial--healing. Poignant and insightful, this memoir will help those who's suffered a major loss to better understand the need to grieve at one's own pace, as well as in one's own individual way.
Synopsis
On a glorious, if blisteringly hot, Saturday in August 2010, Margaret Thomson's world is suddenly shattered by the incomprehensible news that her twenty-two-year-old son, a medic in the army, has taken his life. In a deep state of shock, Thomson and her husband immediately travel to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, where their son Kieran was stationed, in an effort to assist their daughter-in-law. Upon their arrival, though, the couple find themselves plunged into a labyrinthine and, at times, seemingly bizarre world of military rules and regulations. Eventually, after the funeral and the memorial services are over, an even more challenging journey--emotionally as well as geographically--ensues, especially for Margaret, who, as a former journalist, is determined to find out more about the circumstances surrounding her son's death, no matter how high the cost. As she enters her second year of grieving, Thomson receives an unexpected invitation from an unlikely source--the army, which she's often blamed in many ways, whether fairly or not, for her son's death. Seizing upon this opportunity, Thomson finds that her perspective is changed--literally--and that as a result the world does indeed look different now.
Synopsis
The gripping, intensely personal story of a mother struggling to come to terms with the suicide of her twenty-two-year-old son.