Casey needs a family: the joys and sorrows, people who love her, and a place she belongs—what Zorba the Greek called “the full catastrophe.” Adrift since losing her father when she was eleven and her mother soon after, the death of her only sibling eight years later strengthens her resolve.

Casey marries, has three children, and thinks she’s found the life she’s longed for, but her marriage isn’t the dream she envisioned. Ultimately, a divorce and custody trial propel her family into a catastrophe of a different sort, and each of her children suffers. Struggling alongside them, Casey embraces the spirituality she’s sought since childhood. Then the unthinkable happens—her firstborn, Eric, dies at age twenty—and she’s left to make sense of her family’s collapse and the loss of her beloved boy.

In a moving testament to the power of love, The Full Catastrophe tells of a life of loss and sorrow transformed into one of hope and redemption. With hard-won wisdom, Casey shows us how peace and belonging can only be found within ourselves.