One autumn morning Carol Henderson was a new mother recovering in the hospital and cradling a baby the doctor declared perfect. Within days of delivery, the new mother's peaceful world disintegrated into a nightmare of hospitals, tubes, EKG's, and operations. Her baby had a serious heart murmur. Losing Malcolm is a frank and compelling narrative about a naive mother whose carefully constructed life unravels when her infant son dies. Before her son's devastating illness, the author had little experience with the realities of disease and death. After dealing with doctors and living around the clock in the hospital, Henderson, a hypochondriac who feared all things medical, becomes an informed and tenacious advocate for her child. After a free-fall plunge to the depths of her grief, she resurfaces with a newfound sense of self, a deep empathy for others, and a poignant awareness that enduring grief eventually takes its place in the broader tapestry of life. Interweaving dreams and journal entries, this highly original memoir offers an evocative chronicle of emotional devastation and recovery. Henderson's account also reveals the differing ways in which she and her husband responded to their child's death and the ways in which loss transformed them. With wit and caring, she also deals with the taboos that exist in the way society-grandparents, friends, and neighbors-deal with death. This spare, honest narrative resonates with universal themes. It will appeal to those who have suffered the loss of a loved one, those who know someone who is suffering, and those who are interested in reading about the tragedies and triumphs of others

Losing Malcolm: A Mother's Journey Through Grief

Biographies & Memoirs

Henderson, Carol

Community & Culture

Willowdell Books

Carol Henderson tells the spellbinding story of how her one-day writing workshop for bereaved mothers turned into an ongoing journey of self-discovery and healing for 13 women who had lost children. Each woman brought to the group a powerful story of loss and bereavement, and each discovered the sustaining power of reflective writing. The women’s stories, harrowing and poignant, are rendered both by Henderson and by the women themselves—the book includes generous portions of their own writing. Farther Along is at once the history of an evolving writers group, and a detailed guide for group leaders and facilitators who are interested in using writing as a tool for healing.

Farther Along: The Writing Journey of Thirteen Bereaved Mothers

Parenting & Relationships

"Funny and revealing," Nikki Giovanni, New York Times "Nothing if not sure-handed," Philadelphia Inquirer "The first instance of a serious rock novel" - St. Louis Post Dispatch "A rich, comic, crazy picture of pop insanity." - Boston Herald "Profoundly concerned with American culture and its myths." - Ed Ward, The Village Voice Byron Bluford is an assembly line worker who performs Elvis songs on the weekends. His local nickname is “Blue-Suede” and folks in Portland, Maine have long written him off as a loser. But one day Elvis Presley dies. Once the shock wears off, Byron is certain that The King’s spirit has been reborn in him, and it’s his mission to complete Elvis’s career. The power of his delusion takes him all the way to Las Vegas, and propels him to the very top of the Elvis impersonator universe—and unforeseen disaster.

Stark Raving Elvis

Henderson, William McCranor

Literature & Fiction

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