Struck - by Russ Ramsey (Paperback)

About the Book

What happens when you come face-to-face with your mortality? As Russ Ramsey faced the possibility of death, he grappled with fear, anger, depression, and loss, and yet he experienced grace that filled him with a hope and hunger for the life to come. This profoundly eloquent memoir reveals that in the midst of pain, we can see glimpses of eternity.

Book Synopsis

• EPA 2018 Christian Book Award Finalist - Biography and Memoir

"When my doctor told me I was dying, I came alive." What happens when you come face-to-face with your mortality? When your body fails you, what happens to your faith? Russ Ramsey was struck by a bacterial infection that destroyed his mitral valve, sending him into heart failure and requiring urgent open-heart surgery. As he faced the possibility of death, he found himself awakened to new realities. In the critical days and months that followed, Ramsey came to see the world through the eyes of affliction. He grappled with fear, anger, depression, and loss, and yet he experienced grace through the suffering that filled him with a hope and hunger for the life to come. This profoundly eloquent memoir gives voice to the deepest questions of the human condition. In the midst of pain, we can see glimpses of eternity.

Review Quotes

"Struck is Russ Ramsey's raw, unflinching look at what it means to be a person of faith in the midst of physical suffering. Doctors should read this book to better understand their patients. Nurses should read this book as a reminder to leave 'trail magic' for the weary. But this book isn't just for those who work in hospitals. To those whose lives or loved ones have been struck by pain, trauma, or heartbreak, this book speaks boldly about grief and the recovery process. Russ offers no silver linings. Instead, he offers the truth."

--Claire Gibson, freelance writer, novelist

"A good memoir is about the author but not really about the author. In it the reader sees themself, their experiences, their emotions, their life. Struck is just such a memoir. Russ has told his story, but not just his story. He has told my story of pain and grief and faith and fear and recovery and doubt and help. And he has told yours too. His story is of a medical crisis and more. Yours may be of a broken marriage or a lost child or a career in ruins, but it's the same story with the same hope. As you read this story of a stranger, you will see yourself and your loved ones in the pages and be encouraged."

--Barnabas Piper, author of Help My Unbelief and The Curious Christian

"Earthy, authentic, and full of enduring wisdom, Russ Ramsey has eloquently documented his journey through loss in this personal story. Struck offers hope and honesty in the midst of suffering, displaying a life lived with an open heart before God in all circumstances."

--Sandra McCracken, singer/songwriter, God's Highway, Psalms, Desire Like Dynamite

"In prose allowing the passage of light, Russ Ramsey blazes a trail of affliction and belief. No one hopes for the crucible, but this piercing account makes room for honest lament, complaint, and anger en route to simplicity and a faith purged of sentiment. Struck will hearten those adrift in the valleys. You know who you are."

--Leif Enger, bestselling author of Peace Like a River and So Brave, Young, and Handsome

"In the spirit of C. S. Lewis's A Grief Observed, Russ has done us all a great service by chronicling his own journey into the darkness of grief and death and mortality. I'm so glad he recovered and came back from such a place to tell us this story--which is not so much about brokenness, but healing. This book has already been a comfort to me, and I have no doubt that it will be a comfort to many."

--Andrew Peterson, singer/songwriter, author, proprietor of The Rabbit Room

"Russ Ramsey writes from his own incredible journey of near-fatal heart disease in real time. I was quickly caught up in the journey with him and felt like I became friends with him and the fascinating people he meets along the way. As a therapist who frequently references and recommends books, I moved this to the top of my list for many of the hard issues that we all face. Russ is vulnerable and honest about the deepest questions of life and leaves us with a peace that makes the unanswerable questions much less important. Russ combines Lewis's A Grief Observed, Keller's The Meaning of Marriage, and Kübler-Ross's On Death and Dying in one place and gives us the head and heart knowledge for trials that we all are familiar with. I'm proud to say that Russ is as real in his roles as my pastor and friend as he is in this book."

--Kaka Ray, LMFT, trauma specialist

About the Author

Russ Ramsey is a pastor at Christ Presbyterian Church in Nashville, Tennessee, where he lives with his wife and four children. His writing has appeared at The Rabbit Room, The Gospel Coalition, The Art House, and He Reads Truth. He is the author of Behold the Lamb of God and was awarded the 2016 Christian Book Award from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association for his book Behold the King of Glory.