Overview

When Love Isn't Enough is a love story, a survival story, and a story of starting over from the deepest kind of broken. A story about what happens after the end. It explores the emotional aftermath of suicide, the complexity of long-term love, and the slow, painful work of reclaiming oneself. Told with honesty, grit, and grace, this memoir transcends suicide loss to explore the tender territory of self-discovery. is a powerful true story about love, suicide loss, betrayal, and healing. What happens when the person you love chooses to leave? This raw and compelling memoir begins with the sudden suicide of the author's long-term partner, Christopher, under the lemon tree in their garden. Her world shatters in an instant as she is left behind in the wreckage of unanswered questions. She finds herself suffocating beneath the weight of grief, guilt, and the hollow ache of abandonment. But this isn't just a story about loss. It's a reckoning. With the world and the truth. And most painfully, with herself. His death thrusts her onto a harrowing journey through her grief. As she stumbles through the aftermath, the shock of bereavement quickly spirals into something darker. Financial betrayals emerge. Family loyalties fracture. Secrets surface like splinters buried just beneath the skin. Each discovery threatens to rewrite her entire history, not just with Christopher, but with her own childhood, marked by silence, survival, and unspoken wounds. What follows is not just the unravelling of a relationship but the unearthing of a life built on buried truths. As the author navigates the chaos of legal battles, estate complications, and multiple betrayals, she uncovers a secret financial life that Christopher kept hidden. These revelations turn mourning into a search for meaning. Her care for their animals, the painful process of rehoming them, and her attempt to hold onto something stable amidst the collapse, speak to her deep resilience. The stakes are not only emotional; they're existential. If she doesn't find a way to face the truth, she might vanish inside it. Through therapy and introspection, the author travels backward into her childhood, confronting unresolved trauma, suicidal ideation, and generational pain. Caught between grief and awakening, she flees her home country and begins an exile of both geography and soul. It is in the quiet loneliness of Scotland's stark beauty and the introspection that follows, that she can confront the ghosts of her past, the traumas she's buried, truths she's avoided, and the haunting question that lingers: If love couldn't save Christopher... can anything save her? In learning to ""parent"" herself, she discovers what it truly means to survive. Not by forgetting, but by remembering differently. By understanding the impact on her adult life, leading her to self-forgiveness and healing. The daring rescue of her cat, Molly, symbolizes a reclaiming of agency and a step towards rebuilding her life. But the heart of the memoir lies in its emotional excavation. Her pivotal journey in Scotland becomes a turning point where self-reflection and solitude finally offer her clarity and peace. The narrative culminates not in resolution, but in evolution: she chooses to live, not out of obligation, but out of purpose. The story delves into her emotional turmoil, highlighting the depth of her pain and the complexities of mourning a loved one lost to suicide. Despite the darkness, she exhibits moments of strength, such as initiating the writing of this memoir and reflecting on her past. These instances mark the beginning of her healing process. It's about what remains after the worst has happened and how rebuilding isn't just possible, but powerful. Vulnerable, unflinching, and fiercely empowering, this is not just a story of what was lost, but everything that was found.

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9781037093630

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Giselle Oosterbroek is the author of When Love Isn't Enough, a deeply personal memoir about grief, truth, and healing in the wake of suicide. Born in England in 1966, she emigrated to South Africa with her family in 1975 after a traumatic event. What began as a book about her childhood trauma evolved into a story she never expected to tell, one that gave voice to years of silence and sorrow after losing her partner, Christopher. Following a transformative 5 years in Scotland when she began writing, Giselle decided to return to South Africa in December 2024 to complete and publish this book. She continues writing, is preparing to publish her collection of children's books and has relaunched her small business.

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