Book for sudden end to a marriage

January 19, 2014 3:17 PM

Asking for a friend: I was approached by a friend today who was looking for a book to recommend to a friend of her's. The friend of a friend is going through a sudden and bewildering end to a marriage (her husband of many years packed his clothes while she was at the store and left). Obviously, she is in tremendous shock and plans to seek help from a counselor, but I'm wondering if anyone can recommend any books for her in the meantime.

Thank you all for your help.

posted by 4ster to Human Relations (7 answers total)

I went through something similar about 3 years ago. The thing that helped me the most was the book The Journey From Abandonment to Healing. It's available via Kindle so she could potentially start reading it immediately.

It has a lot of good exercises to help cope with the rollercoaster of emotions, as well as some good explanation of what biological cues cause the emotional responses she's likely feeling.

I cannot recommend it highly enough - it was definitely key in my ability to keep things together while going through a horrible situation.
posted by dotgirl at 3:32 PM on January 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Something that helped me. It tells of real life experiences of individuals.
posted by Greenlight2b at 3:45 PM on January 19, 2014

It's not spot on, but Pema Chodron's going to be good for her long haul.
posted by mibo at 4:04 PM on January 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

How to Survive the Loss of A Love is not at all specific to death/grief.
posted by j_curiouser at 4:09 PM on January 19, 2014 [1 favorite]

Gabriel Cohen's Storms Can't Hurt the Sky was invaluable to me.
posted by Zozo at 8:18 AM on January 20, 2014

Response by poster: Thank you, friends. These are very helpful suggestions and have been passed on.
posted by 4ster at 11:54 AM on January 20, 2014

I used The Grief Recovery Handbook in dealing with the end of a relationship and the death of a pet. I've recommended it to people so many times. I think these guys really know the step by step method of finding closure on one's own.
posted by janey47 at 10:36 AM on January 21, 2014