. . . a compelling and honest story of one father's search for meaning and healing following the sudden death of his son. That Koppelman believes in the importance of choice and of the importance of telling one's own story provide two of the most inspirational themes of this book. He shows us how even during the helplessness and hopeless periods that the sorrows of grief impose, there are healing choices, things one can do to gain control, to personalize experience, to claim and proclaim the value and uniqueness of the life of the lost son. Because Koppelman tells his own story so candidly, including his dreams and doubtings, readers are gently pulled deeper into a celebration connecting them with their own life, how they could help themselves, what they could do to bring meaning to a loss they have suffered. The reader becomes both listener and co-creator of a larger story of his or her own making.
—The Rainbow Connection, Burnsville, North Carolina

One of the themes that I could relate to strongly was that of the importance of the story. For many years I considered that to be asked about my ‘story’ was to trivialize it; I thought of story books for children and other such meanings attached to the word. But gradually I began to see that in the truest sense of the word we all have a story to tell, and that such stories handed down over the years became the stuff of history. In telling the stories of our children we, in a sense, rewrite our own biography. Koppelman writes movingly about the unconditional love he has for Jason—seeing his faults and yet finding that his love for his son is not diminished, but rather enriched. The memories that we and others hold in our hearts within the present link two different realities: the past, which included our child, and the future, which does not, says Koppelman. In this way we are indeed our children’s bridge to the future, because they can live on for others by the richness of the biography we tell, the brightness of the portrait we paint. This is an honest and open-minded book; the journey towards faith in life is begun. It is also, in the words of Kierkegaard that are quoted by the author ‘a work of love in remembering one dead.
—Edward's Trust, Birmingham, Canada

The Fall of a Sparrow invites us into the loss, grief, and journey toward healing of a family suddenly faced with the tragic death of their vibrant teenaged son just at the time when life and its future were coming together for him. The father/author lets us experience his inner dynamics of pain and loss, to see and remember, to recapture the gifts of shared life in family, and to discover and be discovered by hope and healing. I urge others to enter the journey of love with him.
—Ph.D., Retired Campus Minister, Professor of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse