Read an excerpt
See also www.abigailcarter.com
90,000 words
Finished books available
US: HCI Books, Fall 2008
Canada: McClelland & Stewart, Spring 2008
Holland: Uitgevers Mistral, Fall 2008
Australia: Hachette Australia, Feb 2009
N. American English Audio: Audible Books
(Photo: Peter Waweru)
Abigail Carter was born in Philadelphia and raised in Toronto, Canada. With her husband Arron Dack, she lived in London, Brussels, and Boston before settling in Montclair, NJ. Abigail began writing at the age of 38 as a form of catharsis after her husband’s death in the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. Her work has been published in SELF magazine, and in a newsletter for a September 11th organization, Tuesday’s Children. Before she began writing, Abigail worked as a Web Project Manager for Audible.com, a company that sells downloadable audio books. Abigail now lives in Seattle, WA with her two young children.
A Young Widow's Transformation
by Abigail Carter
A 9/11 WIDOW STRUGGLES TO RAISE TWO GRIEVING CHILDREN ON HER OWN
A 9/11 widow finds her own way to grieve- On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, reflections on grief and loss
- Why Abigail Carter isn't celebrating Osama bin Laden's death
- A Globe and Mail Notable Book of the Year
- Longlisted for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction
The Alchemy of Loss is The Year of Magical Thinking for the younger, single-parent survivor, whose married family life was just beginning when it was cut short. It is the book that Abigail Carter was looking for in the days after the unthinkable happened. Abby is smart, funny, perceptive, and bereft. In the eyes of most, herself included, she had it all—a full life with a loving, successful husband and two beautiful children. But in a horrifying instant witnessed by the world, their lives were changed irreparably. How does one learn to live again after tragedy? The Alchemy of Loss is Abby’s moving story, answering that unimaginable question. It demonstrates graphically that each person must forge her own path through grief.
As a Canadian who did not associate her loss with national pride, Abigail Carter brings a unique perspective on the events of September 11th. Her chronicle of mourning concentrates on her discoveries about dealing with personal grief, making it a story with universal resonance. She learns how to (and how not to) cherish the memories of her husband while moving forward with her life and becoming a mother her children can depend on. She copes with the difficulty of repeatedly sharing a personal story that has been sensationalized, identifies the differences between manifestations of a child’s grief and normal growing pains, and experiences firsthand the debilitating physical effects of heartache.
In the six years after 9/11, Abby turned everything she knew about herself upside-down in order to learn to live again. The Alchemy of Loss is her gift to us. With humour, brilliant insights, and raw honesty, her story is a loving portrayal of a marriage, and the loss of it, that serves as an inspiration for us all.
PRAISE FOR THE ALCHEMY OF LOSS
“Eloquent and honest… a story that is unnerving, uplifting and occasionally humorous…. Heartfelt and courageous…. A remarkable book.” — THE GLOBE AND MAIL
“What an eloquent, brave and (even) occasionally comic account Abigail Carter has given us of her zigzagging odyssey through the country of mourning. No mourner has it easy, but Carter's tasks were daunting -- to mother two suddenly fatherless children, to find her own way through the strife that bereavement brings to her parents and mother-in-law, and to disentangle her personal grief from the national mourning. Through it all, she is a generous, nuanced and admirably honest guide.” — KATHERINE ASHENBURG, author of The Mourner’s Dance