A Space in the Heart: A Survival Guide for Grieving Parents

A Space in the Heart is about the anguish that the death of a child brings and how to survive and thrive in its aftermath. It's part memoir, part self-help, zero bullshit and 100 percent straight from the heart. It's about our never-ending love for our lost children and how that love ultimately helps us transform and heal. In other words, it's a roadmap for a road no one would ever choose to travel.

Grief isn't something that you overcome...but you can learn to live with it. It will take time. It will take work. It will take pain. It will take strength. It will take an open heart. It will take everything you have. It will take things that you didn't know you had.

That's what this book is really about and what sets it apart. It's about the specific heartache that the death of a child brings. It includes an honest retelling of the ups and downs of parenting an adopted son who struggled with addiction and mental illness. It's a heartbreaking, at times surprisingly humorous, yet ultimately comforting guided tour through the hell of losing a child--a journey on which a parent can transform from ordinary to extraordinary.

One of the many other things Larry Carlat learned is that grief lasts until the day we die. The question becomes--what do we want to do with it until then? How do we want to live our lives knowing that we've lost a vital piece of who we are? His greatest wish is that this book will help answer those existential questions and, above all, provide unwavering hope along the way.

Larry Carlat is a writer and editor who lives in Venice, CA. He has written for The New York Times Magazine, Esquire, GQ, Rolling Stone, Men's Journal, Men's Health and Slam. He is also a grief coach and group leader for bereaved parents at Our House Grief Support Center, and sits on its Board of Directors.