The Box Must Be Empty, Marilyn Kriete
The Box Must Be Empty, Marilyn Kriete
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The Box Must Be Empty
A Memoir of Complicated Grief, Spiritual Despair, and Ultimate Healing

Author: Marilyn Kriete

Narrator: Marilyn Kriete

Unabridged: 7 hr 36 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 04/04/2023

Synopsis

What happens when buried grief rises two decades late, upending the life you’ve built on its coffin? When you add loss upon loss by constantly moving, serving a church organization—and possible cult—that expects unwavering sacrifice? How do you restore a devastated marriage, a crushed faith, and an endlessly broken heart?Two years after Marilyn loses her fiancé to cancer, she becomes a Christian and marries Henry, joining him in a worldwide ministry that leaves little time for family or personal reflection. When her old grief resurfaces, she’s shocked by the tsunami that rips through their lives. Intensive counselling fails to bring healing, and when Henry writes a public letter that decimates their churches and spins them out of fellowship—and lifelong employment—she faces an emotional and spiritual reckoning that challenges her to the core. With unflinching honesty, Marilyn shares the missteps and keys to recovering her heart, her faith, and her self-esteem. Multilayered and compelling, Marilyn’s story will resonate with anyone who’s stuck in grief, navigating a mid-life career crisis, or struggling with a spiritual life that’s lost its luster or lost its way.

About Marilyn Kriete

Marilyn Kriete’s debut memoir, Paradise Road, chronicles the death of her first love and her conversion to Christianity and marriage that this memoir is rooted in. Paradise Road was recognized as the winner in the Young Adult Nonfiction Category and as a finalist in both New Adult Nonfiction and Book Cover Design (Nonfiction) in the 15th Annual Indie Excellence Awards. The 2022 Book Excellence Awards named it Best Adventure Nonfiction. The author/essayist lived in sixteen cities spanning four continents before returning to her native Canada. She resides in Kelowna, British Columbia, with her husband, Henry, and three cats.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Declan on January 24, 2023

The author supplied me with an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This turned out to be a very good deal! This is a memoir about resilience and courage, qualities I've always admired in others. The writer experienced not just sadness but overwhelming, prostrating grief that......more

Goodreads review by Beth on January 19, 2023

Beautifully written… what a compelling story. I read it in two days…couldn’t put it down, because I felt drawn in by the author’s very real sharing of her deep pain over both her past and more present griefs. You will ache along with her… her descriptions of the depth of her hurt brought me to tears......more

Goodreads review by Ken on January 24, 2023

Marilyn stated her reason for writing this book in its final page: there was none like it. Well, I agree. I know of no one who captures the pain of an unmourned relationship like she does. I know of no one who captures the beauty and confusion and love and trauma of an unhealthy church like she does......more

Goodreads review by Marissa on October 08, 2024

There is a lot of good information about grief in this book.......more

Goodreads review by Gwen on January 21, 2023

I fell in love with Marilyn Kriete's writing when I read her first book, Paradise Road, and this second book does not disappoint. It's full of the same kind of brutal honesty, passion, humor, colorful narrative and poetic writing that kept me riveted in the first book. I actually had to stop myself......more

Quotes

“This profoundly moving memoir leads with vulnerability, communicates with grace, and delivers the kind of hard-earned wisdom that only comes with time. An intensely personal story of recovery, its lessons apply to any soul with unhealed wounds.” Daryl Potter, author of Even the Monsters and Bitter for Sweet

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