📘 Swimming With Maya
by Eleanor Vincent
Genre Nonfiction ◦ Memoir
Format & Source Print ◦ For review
Publication 2013
Rating ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
📝 My Review
Swimming With Maya will break your heart but it will also kind of fix it, too.
At the age of 19, with a bright future as an actress ahead of her, Eleanor’s daughter, Maya, died in a freak horseback riding accident. Her brain becomes swollen beyond repair, and despite the hospital’s best effort, after several days in a coma, Maya would not make it. Eleanor was asked the difficult question of whether or not she would be willing to donate Maya’s organs to save other lives. She agreed, despite the pain of losing her daughter, in hopes that perhaps Maya’s death could save others.
People say that losing a child is the worst pain in the world and that no one can possibly imagine it until they go through it. Despite the impossibility of imagining such a tragedy, Eleanor somehow is able to convey the pain. I know I can’t really imagine how it feels, but Eleanor shows us just how badly it hurt and I hurt right along with her while reading her story. It was like I was sitting in that hospital right alongside her waiting for news from the doctor. Her writing was so vivid and clear that I simply could not put the book down because I, too, was aching to know what would happen.
This is an incredible memoir with beautiful writing that flowed like a novel. You are right there with the family, living through their nightmare and later finding some hope again. I highly recommend this book to all fans of memoirs. You won’t be able to put it down or stop thinking of Maya and her family. This is an absolutely beautiful tribute that you will never forget.
Note: this post originally included a giveaway which has since ended.
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