Now You See the Sky

by Catharine H. Murray

Overview

"Murray's lucid meditations and living-in-the-moment attitude—e.g., providing simple pleasures like a favorite food to a sick child—serve as useful reminders to all of us that life is precious and fleeting and must be enjoyed to the fullest. It's a simple message but an important one. As much a eulogy to Chan as a testament to the joy of life, the book is a heartwarming tale of dealing with life-altering loss...A tender, love-filled story of how one woman dealt with the loss of a young child."
—Kirkus Reviews

"A compassionate journey in grief and recovery...The memoir is the transcendence from the grief that soon finds this joyful young family."
—207

"An extraordinary memoir. Forthright, honest and haunting...Murray's memoir is wise and enlightened."
—Portland Press Herald

"Catharine H. Murray's middle son, Chan, was diagnosed with a rare and complicated form of leukemia at the heartbreaking age of five. After Western medicine did all it could do, Catharine, her husband, and her three boys moved to a remote cabin in Thailand where Chan spent his final months. Today we're talking about her book Now You See the Sky, a beautiful memoir that recounts the devastating reality of the loss of her child...and how death asked her to 'nail her feet to the floor' to stay present throughout."
—Coming Back with Shelby Forsythia (podcast)

"Now You See the Sky is so real, so tender and so painful that its impact will be felt long after the last page...It must have been very difficult for Murray to tell this story, so personal yet so necessary, but she writes with such honesty and clarity, sure to evoke strong reader reactions."
—Kennebec Journal

"A gorgeously written memoir that burrows deep into the heart."
—Brevity Magazine

"Now You See the Sky is singular—as wise, beautiful, and elegiac as it is specific and in-the-moment. It's a rare memoir in that it gives the impression that time can be stopped. There are images in here, gestures of love, and its hard conversations, that a reader will remember forever."
—Rick Bass, author of For a Little While

"Powerful! More than an intimate and heartbreaking story of parenting a child with leukemia, Now You See the Sky is a lesson in accepting the raw uncertainties of life. Murray gives the reader the gift of her hard-won fortitude and compassion to carry as our own."
—Melissa Coleman, author of This Life Is in Your Hands

"Now You See the Sky might be set in Thailand but even after only a few pages this gorgeous debut memoir is located firmly in the reader's heart. I thank and applaud Catharine H. Murray for the openness, honesty, and beauty with which she tells this ungilded story of a mother's love for a dying child. An essential recommendation for those living with loss."
—Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of This Is Paradise

Now You See the Sky is a memoir about love, motherhood, and loss. When Catharine H. Murray travels to a small town on the banks of the Mekong River to work at a refugee camp, she falls in love and marries a local man with whom she has three sons. When their middle son is diagnosed with cancer at age five, their pursuit of a cure takes them from Thailand to Seattle, before they eventually return to Thailand, settling on a remote mountaintop. Full of honesty and grace, Now You See the Sky—the debut selection in Ann Hood's new Gracie Belle imprint—allows the reader to witness the fathomless loss of a beloved child and learn how tragedy can transform us, expand our vision, and make us more fully alive.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781617756665
Publisher:	Akashic Books
Publication date:	11/06/2018
Pages:	280
Sales rank:	546,452
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Catharine H. Murray lives with her two sons in Portland, Maine, where she teaches English to refugees and leads workshops on grief writing. She has read at Harvard University, Maine Medical Center, University of New England, and Maine State Prison. Murray earned her MFA at the Stonecoast Writing Program at the University of Southern Maine, where she was the creative nonfiction editor of the Stonecoast Review. Now You See the Sky is her first book.

Editorial Reviews

"Catharine H. Murray's Now You See the Sky is a deeply powerful, brave story about the kind of loss no parent ever wants to imagine. Set in an Eastern culture that embraces and honors that unimaginable loss, this stunning book will open the eyes and hearts of its readers to a different and soul-sustaining way of coping with the death of a beloved child."
—Marianne Leone, author of Jesse: A Mother's Story

From the Publisher

2018-08-27

A mother's tale of love and loss.

In 1989, when she was 23, Murray left her Maine home and traveled to Thailand to work at a refugee camp, and she quickly fell in love with the people, culture, and natural surroundings. She eventually married a Thai man, Dtaw, and had three sons with him. As she chronicles, their family life was simple and peaceful—until illness struck her middle son, Chan, when he was 5. He was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer, and the family moved to Seattle ("a halfway spot between Dtaw's home in Thailand and mine in Maine") for months of treatment before returning to Thailand. With vivid, immediate prose, the author successfully conveys the dismay, pain, sorrow, love, and joy the family experienced during Chan's battle with his disease. Murray intertwines lush descriptions of the Thai landscape and culture with that of her more frenetic Western background as well as her views on medicine, which show the ambiguity she felt as she tried to do what was best for Chan. As the author came to the horrible realization that there was no chance of Chan recovering, she slowly eased into the mindset of making each moment with him count. Murray's lucid meditations and living-in-the-moment attitude—e.g., providing simple pleasures like a favorite food to a sick child—serve as useful reminders to all of us that life is precious and fleeting and must be enjoyed to the fullest. It's a simple message but an important one. As much a eulogy to Chan as a testament to the joy of life, the book is a heartwarming tale of dealing with life-altering loss. "I get mired in my own travails less now than I did before," writes Murray in closing. "I don't squint down into the blackness of my own mind so much anymore. Now I try to look up. I try to see the sky."

A tender, love-filled story of how one woman dealt with the loss of a young child.

Kirkus Reviews

In a graceful and unwavering voice, Catharine Murray narrates her memoir of her son, Chan's, brief life. As a young woman, Murray traveled to rural Thailand and became attached to the country and its culture. She settled in Thailand, married a local man, and had three sons. Murray shows us the beauty of living close to the land and raising children in supportive communities. When Chan was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia, the family relocated to Seattle for treatment. After being told that their son's condition was terminal, the family returned to Thailand. Without minimizing her stress and sadness, the poetic manner in which she remembers all the days of Chan's life lingers in the mind of the listener. M.J. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine

JANUARY 2019 - AudioFile