Touching the Shadows

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY JAN 1, 2001

Faced with the sobering reality that death might be about to separate him from his wife, Racinda, Nygren (Child of Rage and 101 Ways to Your Husband's Heart) fought hard against waves of despair. The couple had already endured an agonizingly distant marriage characterized by tumultuous highs and lows, offering little preparation for Racinda's terrifying diagnosis of breast cancer. While many couples blindly stumble through such crises, making temporary peace during the peak stresses, Nygren, eyes wide open, understood and embraced the painful rebirth of his love for Racinda. With a tender transparency, the author tells the story of their marriage from its passionate beginnings to its slow-motion walk to death and ultimate resurrection during Racinda's fight with cancer. He watches helplessly as his wife suffers brutal cancer treatments and clings to slender threads of hope. Celebration reigns as Racinda recovers; then grief returns in full strength as her cancer reappears. Nygren calls upon his adept literary skills to carefully craft this amazing story of marital renewal during one of life's most horrendous scenarios. Nygren writes that although we live in a world that is suffering relationally, physically and spiritually, the good news is that the end of the story is already written for his family and for all Christians, whose faith promises a new life, glimpsed through the shadows.