Life after loss in âSanctuaryâ
In a second memoir, Emily Rapp Black meditates on motherhood, survival, and hope
By Julianna Baggott Globe Correspondent,Updated January 20, 2021, 7:17 p.m.
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Emily Rapp Black
In her latest memoir, âSanctuary,â Emily Rapp Black attempts to plumb both grief and love. After the death of her son, Ronan, to Tay-Sachs disease before his 3rd birthday, a journey she writes about in her previous memoir âThe Still Point of the Turning Worldâ (2014), Black finds herself living in the aftermath of unimaginable loss. On these pages, she refuses to usher the reader through the tidy, well-bordered stages of grief. Instead, she is rebuilding a life in ways that are messy, erratic, and devastating while finding moments of joy, strength, and resilience, a word sheâs wrestled with.