Author – Susan Avitzour
Author's website link – http://www.fiveyearslater.blogspot.com/
Genre or category – Memoir, Grief, Faith, Cancer, Resilience
ISBN-10: 9659146426
ISBN-13: 978-9659146420
In 2001, Susan Avitzour lost her eighteen-year-old daughter Timora to leukemia, after a six-year struggle. In her memoir, And Twice the Marrow of Her Bones, she grapples with many of the profound personal, philosophical, and spiritual questions with which bereaved parents struggle for years – if not for the rest of their lives. Using narrative, poetry, and a journal, she draws us deeply into her family’s world during the “long, wrong years” of her daughter’s illness, and into her own emotional, intellectual, and spiritual journey in their aftermath. She addresses topics that range from food to fun to forgiveness, from pain to purpose to prayer – and ultimately to the challenge of affirming faith and love in an unpredictable, and often cruel, universe. In doing so, she has created a book that will offer invaluable assistance and support not only to bereaved families, but to anyone faced with life’s inevitable challenges and trials.
About Susan Avitzour –
Susan Avitzour was born in 1955. She grew up in Coney Island, Brighton Beach, and Lower Manhattan before leaving New York to earn a BA in French Literature from Wesleyan University. She finished a degree in law at the University of California, Berkeley, shortly before moving to Jerusalem with her family. She left the field of law in 1998, and worked as a mediator, grant-writer, and translator before returning to school in 2005 for a Masters degree in clinical social work. She now works as a cognitive-behavioral therapist both at Hadassah Hospital and privately, helping people who suffer from depression, anxiety, and trauma.
Susan and her husband Daniel raised seven children. Her fourth daughter, Timora, was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 12. The family spent the next six years struggling to maintain a normal life while she underwent extensive treatment, including two bone marrow transplants. She died in 2001, at the age of eighteen.
In addition to her memoir, And Twice the Marrow of Her Bones, Susan has written short fiction. One of her stories, “Understanding Betsy,” won a Special Commendation in the Third International Short Story Contest sponsored by Firstwriter Magazine. Another, “Jerusalem of Gold,” appears in the recently-published Israel Short Stories, a collection of stories by English-speaking writers living in Israel.
Susan Shares What People Are Saying About And Twice the Marrow of Her Bones…
All the comments I’ve gotten have been very positive, and very intense. Many, many people have told me they couldn’t put it down. Some have told me they found it uplifting or inspiring; others have thanked me for writing it and told me that it’s helped them deal with difficulties they are facing in their own lives, even if these difficulties are very different from those I describe in the memoir. No one has said anything noncommittal or polite, such as “it was interesting.” Everyone has used expressions such as “beautifully written,” “powerful,” and “extremely moving.”
"And Twice the Marrow of Her Bones can take you far from your expectations of a book about losing a child to cancer. The amazingly clear, honest prose can ennoble you no matter what you believe before reading the memoir.... Therapists and bereaved relatives would do well to read this memoir several times."
- Yocheved Golani, The Jewish Press: http://www.jewishpress.com/pageroute.do/47285
"While focusing on the author's deeply Jewish experience and perspective, And Twice the Marrow of Her Bones is inspiring to people of all faiths, or none. A must-read for both my Jewish and Christian students and colleagues."
- Dr. Debbie Weissman, President, International Council of Christians and Jews
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