Customer Service 703-661-1594

Heart's Oratorio

One Woman's Journey through Love, Death, and Modern Medicine

Paperback
April 2013
9780983226185
More details
  • Publisher
    Goldenstone Press
  • Published
    24th April 2013
  • ISBN 9780983226185
  • Language English
  • Pages 288 pp.
  • Size 6" x 9"
$18.95

“Slipping out of coma, wresting erasure, I enter stuttering awareness. The last thing I clearly remember is standstill. My fiancé David and I at the very back of the airplane. Late. Worried that we may not make our connecting flight. Enclosed space, forced air, standing in the last row. The clatter of overhead bins opening. Fellow passengers reaching for their baggage. Unheeded requests from flight attendants to allow those with connecting flights to disembark first. Standing still, the weight of my overloaded backpack, its straps digging into my shoulders. The press of people into the aisle, people and their bags ahead of us. Delay. The Next thing I know...blear and blur—black pulsating void dissolving as I am drawn into the sounds surrounding me...”

A memoir about life (and near-death) with a genetic heart condition. This book is composed of many voices: physical and metaphysical; medical and mystical. It’s a love story, a heroine’s journey and a medical drama that explores the fragility and resilience of the human heart. The journey portrayed reconciles the author’s family heritage of natural healing and the conflict that arises between a holistic and spiritual orientation with Western technology.

This literary nonfiction narrative weaves between personal and mythic realms, depicting a mother’s love for her children at risk and a woman’s love for a man who stands by her in the darkest hours. "Heart’s Oratorio" provides examples of the miraculous, offering hope to those dealing with chronic and life-threatening illness.

Mary Oak

Mary Oak’s work is rooted in a love for the living Earth and a spirituality that draws from many sources. She is on the core faculty of Sound Circle Center in Seattle, where she teaches creative writing, storytelling, and nature awareness. She also works one-on-one as a writing guide. Mary holds a degree in Mythopoetics and Sacred Ecology, and an MFA in Creative Writing, both from Antioch University. She is a seventh-generation homeopath, working in a wide range of healing modalities. One of her deepest joys is having raised three sons and a daughter. She lives with her husband, David Fries, in Seattle.