Death & Grief
![Laura Trujillo - [object Object] author](https://res.cloudinary.com/readsomnia/image/upload/authors/a_B09BDNLHCV.jpg)
Stepping Back from the Ledge: A Daughter's Search for Truth and Renewal
In this stunning memoir of grief and survival, one woman confronts her family's secrets in the aftermath of her mother's suicide, asking a seemingly impossible question: How do you mourn a loved one as you repair the injuries they inflicted?
"Laura Trujillo resurfaces from the dark ‘sub-basement' of despair with assurances for us all: There is hope. There is healing. Always, there is love. This book will save lives."-Connie Schultz, author of The Daughters of Erietown
Laura Trujillo had been close to her mother for most of her adult life, raising her four children within a few miles of their beloved grandmother's Phoenix home. But just three months after moving her young family to Cincinnati for a new job, Laura receives shocking news: Her mother had taken her own life-by jumping off a ledge into the Grand Canyon, a place Laura knew her mother had always loved.
Laura and her mother had shared a profound and special bond, yet each had also kept from the other the deepest truths about their lives. As an adult, Laura finally broke her silence about the sexual abuse she had suffered as a teenager at the hands of her stepfather-a secret Laura had buried to protect her mother. After her mother's death, Laura embarks on an emotional odyssey, searching for clues that could explain the depression, intergenerational trauma, and shared heartbreaks in her family. When she returns to the Grand Canyon, it becomes an oasis that nurtures Laura's search for redemption and peace. As Laura wrestles with her feelings, she forges a new path forward.
Moving and intimate, powerfully told, Stepping Back from the Ledge is a remarkable exploration of the bond between a mother and daughter, and of the hope that can come from facing the truth.
"Laura Trujillo resurfaces from the dark ‘sub-basement' of despair with assurances for us all: There is hope. There is healing. Always, there is love. This book will save lives."-Connie Schultz, author of The Daughters of Erietown
Laura Trujillo had been close to her mother for most of her adult life, raising her four children within a few miles of their beloved grandmother's Phoenix home. But just three months after moving her young family to Cincinnati for a new job, Laura receives shocking news: Her mother had taken her own life-by jumping off a ledge into the Grand Canyon, a place Laura knew her mother had always loved.
Laura and her mother had shared a profound and special bond, yet each had also kept from the other the deepest truths about their lives. As an adult, Laura finally broke her silence about the sexual abuse she had suffered as a teenager at the hands of her stepfather-a secret Laura had buried to protect her mother. After her mother's death, Laura embarks on an emotional odyssey, searching for clues that could explain the depression, intergenerational trauma, and shared heartbreaks in her family. When she returns to the Grand Canyon, it becomes an oasis that nurtures Laura's search for redemption and peace. As Laura wrestles with her feelings, she forges a new path forward.
Moving and intimate, powerfully told, Stepping Back from the Ledge is a remarkable exploration of the bond between a mother and daughter, and of the hope that can come from facing the truth.
Editorial Reviews
"A heartfelt, moving memoir about the grief of losing one's mother and the beauty of finding oneself. Laura Trujillo creates space for necessary conversations, not just around suicide, depression, and abuse, but for the question of how to move forward when we feel paralyzed and unmoored. With its vulnerability and insights, Stepping Back from the Ledge reminds us that we are never alone."-Maya Shanbhag Lang, author of What We Carry
"Read Laura Trujillo's fierce, tender, harrowing, and transcendent search for answers where there are none and be forever changed."-Emily Rapp Black, author of Sanctuary
"In the wake of her mother's suicide, Laura Trujillo was immersed in roiling waves of grief that threatened to pull her under. With a journalist's skill for reporting, and a daughter's need to understand the unknowable, she takes us on a journey into the dark, ‘sub-basement' of despair. She resurfaces with assurances for us all: There is hope. There is healing. Always, there is love. This book will save lives."-Connie Schultz, author of The Daughters of Erietown
"Read Laura Trujillo's fierce, tender, harrowing, and transcendent search for answers where there are none and be forever changed."-Emily Rapp Black, author of Sanctuary
"In the wake of her mother's suicide, Laura Trujillo was immersed in roiling waves of grief that threatened to pull her under. With a journalist's skill for reporting, and a daughter's need to understand the unknowable, she takes us on a journey into the dark, ‘sub-basement' of despair. She resurfaces with assurances for us all: There is hope. There is healing. Always, there is love. This book will save lives."-Connie Schultz, author of The Daughters of Erietown
