You’re So Strong: On Grief and Letting Go of My Favorite Compliment

Harter-Berg, owner of the video production company Harter Creative, debuts with a vulnerable and slyly funny account of grappling with her husband’s untimely death. After 34-year-old Ryan died of a brain hemorrhage during a California vacation, the author, then 30, became the sole parent of two boys under five. She recounts struggling through a grieving process where poignant moments (“I’m flying home as a half person”) frequently clashed with the mundane demands of everyday life (“You still need tampons when your husband is dying,” she remembers thinking on her husband’s sickbed). She also details how her relationship with religion evolved from “waiting for [her] faith” to return to embracing God as a source of comfort as she worked through her anger and grief. Throughout, Harter-Berg powerfully illustrates how life marches on in the face of tragedy, describing a grieving process that’s often nonlinear and filled in equal measure with moments of doubt and faith. Frank and witty, this will be a balm to readers who’ve prematurely lost a loved one. (Mar.)