Wish You Were Here - by Amy Welborn (Paperback)

About the Book

Traces the author's journey to Sicily with her three children after the sudden death of her husband, a pilgrimage of self-reflection marked by their tours of regional towns and ancient ruins.

Book Synopsis

Wish You Were Here: Travels Through Loss and Hope is the story of Amy Welborn's trip to the island of Sicily with three of her children five months after her husband's sudden death from a heart attack. Her journey through city and countryside, small town and ancient ruins, opens unexpected doors of memory and reflection, a pilgrimage of the heart and an exploration of the soul. It is an observant and wry memoir and travelogue, intensely personal yet speaking to universal experiences of love and loss.
Along the narrow roads and hairpin turns, the narrative reveals the beauty of the ordinary and the commonplace and asks stark questions about how we fill the empty places that a loved one leaves behind. It is a meditation on the possibility of faith, one that is unflinching, uncompromising, and altogether unsentimental when confronted by the ultimate test of belief. This book is not only a well-told memoir, but a testimony to the truth that love is stronger than death.

Review Quotes

"Amy Welborn's latest book is a must-read spiritual treasure. It reveals not only the heart-wrenching dynamics of grief but also the odd and wonderful way grace illuminates even the thickest darkness. Funny, engagingly written, spiritually profound, Wish You Were Here is a gem." --Robert Baron, author of Catholicism: A Journey to the Heart of the Faith

"Amy Welborn says it best: 'Everything but love has been burned away and a feast awaits.' A brave and true memoir of grief, resurrected."
--Heather King, author of Shirt of Flame: A Year with Saint Thérèse of Lisieux

About the Author

AMY WELBORN has written for Our Sunday Visitor, Catholic News Service, Beliefnet, the New York Times, and Commonweal. She has five children and lives in Birmingham, Alabama.