Overview

A 2003 Finalist in the United Kingdom Christian Book Awards ""Albert,"" the neighbor said, ""your mom needs you to come home."" That's how it began for Albert Hsu when his father died. Anyone who has lost a loved one to suicide experiences tremendous shock and trauma. What follows is a confusing mix of emotions—anger, guilt, grief, and despair. Suicide raises heartrending questions: Why did this happen? Why didn't we see it coming? Could we have done anything to prevent it? How can we go on? Many also wonder if those who choose suicide are doomed to an eternity separated from God and their loved ones. Some may even start asking whether life is worth living at all. After his father's death, Hsu wrestled with the intense emotional and theological questions surrounding suicide. While acknowledging that there are no easy answers, he draws on the resources of the Christian faith to point suicide survivors to the God who offers comfort in our grief and hope for the future. For those who have lost a loved one to suicide and for their counselors and pastors, this book is an essential companion for the journey toward healing. This revised edition incorporates updated statistics and now includes a discussion guide for suicide survivor groups.

Full Product Details

9780830844937

Table of Contents

Reviews

"""Al Hsu has updated Grieving a Suicide, an already-valued resource that I recommend to every Christian grieving a suicide. This book is an honest and authentic telling of Al's story of grappling with his father's suicide. It's a story that desperately needs expression in the church, to bring suicide out of the shadows. The bonus gift of the book is listening in on Al's theological and practical reflections on the gut-wrenching complexities of suicide.""--Karen Mason, associate professor of counseling and psychology, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, author of Preventing Suicide ""Grieving a Suicide is one of the most helpful books I read after our son, Matthew, died by suicide. I scribbled notes and comments to myself on nearly every page of this revised and expanded edition, and I found Al Hsu's compassionate and practical words even more beneficial than before. He has walked this painful path and knows firsthand how to give hope and comfort to grieving people. Grieving a Suicide is on my list of must-read books for survivors of suicide loss.""--Kay Warren, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California ""Having lost my brother to suicide, I am often asked by other survivors for recommendations of helpful resources. Al Hsu's Grieving a Suicide will now be the first I recommend. It is comprehensive without being clinical, practical without offering easy answers. And while Hsu's book is tremendously hopeful, it does not flinch at this bald fact: suicide is turmoil and trauma.""--Jen Pollock Michel, award-winning author of Teach Us to Want and Keeping Place"

The author does an outstanding job exploring his own emotions and spiritual responses to this tragedy. Hsu opens this poignant and informative book with five chapters devoted to the initial aftermath suicide survivors must face. He breaks these key journey-points into five parts: shock, turmoil, lament, relinquishment, and remembrance. Hsu also tackles the toughest questions survivors ask, 'Why?', 'Can suicide be forgiven?' and 'Where is God?' This remarkable resource will surely meet the needs of those dealing with a loved one's suicide. Hsu's words fairly shine with the one commodity most needed at times of such immense pain--hope. --CBA Marketplace (August 2002) Hsu gives those who have lost loved ones this way a helpful handbook for dealing with the shock, denial, grieving, the ever-present question 'why' and the awful finality of a sudden death. This book will help survivors understand they are not alone in their suffering. Hsu offers excellent advice on how to move from the grieving period into the recovery period and, finally, into the remembering period. While some of the stories, and Hsu's personal experience, will make you cry, this is a must-have book for anyone who is a suicide survivor. By the time readers finish the book, they will know, thanks to Hsu's encouraging style of writing, they will be able to go on. --Christian Retailing (July 3, 2002) Hsu's wise, bittersweet, intelligently written book relates his own coping with unexpected, violent death and compassionately examines the emotional and theological issues of suicide. . . . Respecting his readers--for instance, by acknowledging individual differences in grieving--Hsu encourages remembering while lamenting and realizing that one will never know what could have been. He addresses such difficult, unanswerable questions as 'Why did it happen?' and 'Could anything have prevented it?' while exploring the morality of suicide and the problem of forgiving the suicide with great sensitivity and care. Suffering, he concludes, is part of the human condition. Rather than pondering 'unfathomable mysteries, ' it is better to do one's best to achieve relief. Despite suffering, one can still find meaning, connect with others, and hope that good can come from pain and healing from grief. Strongly recommended for those who have lost a loved one to suicide. --Booklist (July 2002) This guide for suicide survivors--family and friends of people who took their own lives--maintains InterVarsity Press's tradition of cerebral evangelicalism: it is biblical, well reasoned, clearly presented and thoroughly researched. . . . An unexpected bonus is the personal thread [Albert Y.] Hsu weaves through each chapter, the story of his own deep grief at his father's sudden suicide four years ago. . . . With its careful biblical exposition presented in a friendly homiletical style, Hsu's how-to-think-about-suicide book will have value for evangelical pastors and counselors as much as--perhaps even more than--for the bereaved themselves. --Publishers Weekly (May 27, 2002) I think the material in this book will be a godsend. . . . It is a solid handbook to propel the reader through the anguish that suicide brings on. This is unlike any other book on this particular subject and will prove to be a must-read for counselors, as well as stricken families. --Barbara Johnson, author of Where Does a Mother Go to Resign? In Grieving a Suicide, Al Hsu has done what few can do. He has created a thoughtful, empathic, spiritually ennobling and practically helpful account of his response to the loss of his father by suicide. Al's journey shows how suffering, when we know the Lord, can mature us. I started merely to scan the book just before leaving for a trip, and drawn into the narrative, I read it straight through by the time my flight was finished. Wow! --Everett L. Worthington, Ph.D, author, Five Steps to Forgiveness and When Someone Asks for Help

Grieving a Suicide is one of the most helpful books I read after our son, Matthew, died by suicide. I scribbled notes and comments to myself on nearly every page of this revised and expanded edition, and I found Al Hsu's compassionate and practical words even more beneficial than before. He has walked this painful path and knows firsthand how to give hope and comfort to grieving people. Grieving a Suicide is on my list of must-read books for survivors of suicide loss. Kay Warren, Saddleback Church, Lake Forest, California This is a sad, painful, comforting, and wonderful book. Al Hsu, with endearing honesty, carries the reader on a journey through his own story of grief, weaving together many contemporary, literary, and historic examples of responses to suicide and possible explanations for such a tragic choice. He does not shrink from grappling with tough questions about life and God that are raised by such suffering. This is a profound, detailed, and immensely helpful book for anyone touched by the suicide of a friend or family member. I know of no other book so comprehensive, sensitive, and healing. Richard Winter, psychotherapist, professor emeritus of counseling and applied theology, Covenant Theological Seminary, author of When Life Goes Dark Having lost my brother to suicide, I am often asked by other survivors for recommendations of helpful resources. Al Hsu's Grieving a Suicide will now be the first I recommend. It is comprehensive without being clinical, practical without offering easy answers. And while Hsu's book is tremendously hopeful, it does not flinch at this bald fact: suicide is turmoil and trauma. Jen Pollock Michel, award-winning author of Teach Us to Want and Keeping Place

Author Information

Albert Y. Hsu (pronounced ""shee"") is senior editor for IVP Books at InterVarsity Press, where he acquires and develops books in such areas as culture, discipleship, church, ministry and mission. He earned his PhD in educational studies from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. Al is the author of Singles at the Crossroads, Grieving a Suicide and The Suburban Christian. He has been a writer and columnist for Christianity Today and served as senior warden on the vestry of Church of the Savior in Wheaton, Illinois. He and his wife, Ellen, have two sons and live in the western suburbs of Chicago.

Tab Content 6

Countries Available