Wow. This book blew me away. I had my own life-changing loss back in March 2023 with the loss of my mother. I wish I had this book at the beginning of my healing journey, but it was just as important 2 years out. If you or someone you know is experiencing loss, I highly recommend this one.

Hope Beyond Our Sorrows is the fruitful outcome of April Yamasaki's grief work following the tragic death of her husband, whom she endearingly refers to as “my Dearheart” throughout the book.

The freshness of her own loss and her courageous decision to bear witness to God’s goodness and mercy amid her pain have enabled her to speak hope that has nothing to do with sugar-coated platitudes. Her deeply helpful use of scripture in her writing serves as an invitation to her readers to step into the language of lament as they pour their sorrow into the ears of the God who hears.

Yamasaki urges those who are living with life-changing loss to be patient with themselves and to take grace for all their contradictory feelings and chronic disorientation. In fact, the book is a great resource for friends who are supporting someone through grief. Honoring the loss pushes back against our tendency to rush fellow believers through their mourning.

Still walking the peregrinating path of loss, she writes, “Grief and broken dreams are not the end of the story for any of us. God binds up the brokenhearted. God redeems the brokenness of this world and makes a new creation. We have that hope now and for the future, bound up in the mystery and power of Jesus’s life, death, resurrection, and ascension.”

Have you ever felt at a loss for what to say or do when someone you know is in grief? Hope Beyond Our Sorrows is a gentle guide for those wrestling with grief or for those companioning someone through a significant loss.

Drawing on her own experience, April Yamasaki offers this beautiful, accessible and deeply personal collection of reflections and practices for navigating grievous times. Recognizing that "there is no moving on. There's only moving with," April provides a wide range of prompts for processing grief. Weaving together her own honest and vulnerable accounting of the loss of her Dearheart with scripture and gathered wisdom, this is a book I will be gifting for years to come.