Carrying the Tiger: Living with Cancer, Dying with Grace, Finding Joy While Grieving

Winner, GOLD MEDAL, Global Book Awards

An inspiring story of love, loss and renewal

When Tony Stewart's wife Lynn is diagnosed with cancer, he is thrust into a world of uncertainty, fear and life-threatening challenges. Together Tony and Lynn confront mortality with grace, humor, and unwavering love. Then, after Lynn's passing, Tony journeys through grief-not to escape it, but to honor it-and slowly opens his heart to healing.

Carrying the Tiger is both a love letter and a guide for anyone walking beside illness or loss. As Tony describes his experiences during those years, he also reflects on their meaning: How can one feel tenderness and joy in the midst of shattering grief? What does it mean to live and love with one's whole heart, regardless of the outcome?

Poignant, heartrending, and ultimately hopeful, Carrying the Tiger is for anyone seeking comfort in discomfort and a new perspective on life. In the darkest of places, it finds moments of light-and teaches us how to live fully, even while letting go.

"A remarkable odyssey." - Publishers Weekly (Editor's Pick)

"Heart-wrenching" - Kirkus Reviews

"A beautiful and very human love story which breathes an extraordinary generosity of spirit." - David Newman, author of Talking with Doctors

"Tony Stewart writes with unflinching honesty about love and loss at the deepest level. The book is both devastating and hopeful as we accompany Tony through his wife's diagnosis and illness and his subsequent discovery that joy and grief can live hand in hand." - Jessica Fein, author of Breath Taking: A Memoir of Family, Dreams, and Broken Genes

"Captures emotions and experiences that will be familiar to anyone who's stood by a loved one facing a cancer diagnosis. But here, too, are quiet moments of joy and triumph; this is a work that will strengthen all who read it." - Khalid Dar, MD, Oncologist, Mount Sinai Morningside

Author: Tony Stewart
Publisher: West End Books
Published: 04/29/2025
Pages: 320
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.82lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.72d
ISBN: 9798992264913


Review Citation(s):
BlueInk Review 02/18/2025
PW Booklife Reviews 03/10/2025
Foreword 03/03/2025

About the Author
Stewart, Tony: - Tony Stewart has made award-winning films for colleges and universities, written software that received rave reviews in The New York Times and the New York Daily News, designed a grants-management application that was used by three of the five largest charities in the world, and led the development of an international standard for the messages involved in buying and selling advertisements, for which he spoke at conferences across Europe and North America. Tony and his late wife Lynn Kotula, a painter, traveled extensively in India and Southeast Asia, staying in small hotels off the beaten track and eating delicious food with their fingers when cutlery wasn't available. Inspired by the experience of writing Carrying the Tiger, Tony studied with David Kessler and is now a Certified Grief Educator. Learn more: www tonystewartauthor com. FB: @tonystewartauthor. LinkedIn: @tonystewart. Substack: @tonystewartauthor. Instagram: @tonystewartny.