Crossing the River
Seven Stories that Saved My Life, A Memoir
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $30.65
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Cassandra Campbell
-
By:
-
Carol Smith
About this listen
Everyone deals with grief in their own way. Helen MacDonald found solace in training a wild goshawk. Cheryl Strayed found comfort in hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. For Carol Smith, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist struggling with the sudden death of her seven-year-old son, Christopher, the way to cross the river of sorrow was through work.
In Crossing the River, Smith recounts how she faced down her crippling loss through reporting a series of profiles of people coping with their own intense challenges, whether a freak accident, a debilitating injury, or a terrifying diagnosis. Smith deftly mixes the stories of these individuals and their families with her own account of how they helped her heal. General John Shalikashvili, once the most powerful member of the American military, taught Carol how to face fear with discipline and endurance. Seth, a young boy with a rare and incurable illness, shed light on the totality of her son’s experiences and, in turn, helps listeners see that the value of a life is not measured in days.
This is a beautiful and profoundly moving book, an unforgettable journey through grief and a valuable, illuminating listen for anyone coping with loss.
©2021 Carol Smith (P)2021 Dreamscape Media, LLCListeners also enjoyed...
-
The Grieving Brain
- The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss
- By: Mary-Frances O'Connor
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on O’Connor’s own trailblazing neuroimaging work, research in the field, and her real-life stories, The Grieving Brain combines storytelling, accessible science, and practical knowledge that will help us better understand what happens when we grieve and how to navigate loss with more ease and grace.
-
-
Interesting thoughts
- By GAD on 03-12-22
-
It's OK That You're Not OK
- Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand
- By: Megan Devine
- Narrated by: Megan Devine
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Megan Devine offers a profound new approach to both the experience of grief and the way we help others who have endured tragedy. Having experienced grief from both sides - as both a therapist and as a woman who witnessed the accidental drowning of her beloved partner - Megan writes with deep insight about the unspoken truths of loss, love, and healing.
-
-
The author of this book is capital-A Angry
- By A. E. Ober on 08-26-20
By: Megan Devine
-
A Heart That Works
- By: Rob Delaney
- Narrated by: Rob Delaney
- Length: 3 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2016, Rob Delaney’s one-year-old son, Henry, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The family had moved from Los Angeles to London with their two young boys when Rob’s wife was pregnant with Henry, their third. The move was an adventure that would bind them even more tightly together as they navigated the novelty of London, the culture clashes, and the funhouse experience of Rob’s fame—thanks to his role as co-creator and co-star of the hit series Catastrophe. Henry’s illness was a cataclysm that changed everything about their lives.
-
-
Outstanding
- By michelle pollock on 12-08-22
By: Rob Delaney
-
Bittersweet
- How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole
- By: Susan Cain
- Narrated by: Susan Cain
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With Quiet, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an untapped power hidden in plain sight. Now she employs the same mix of research, storytelling, and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing, and how embracing the bittersweetness at the heart of life is the true path to creativity, connection, and transcendence.
-
-
I REALLY wanted to love this book!
- By Leo B. on 05-02-22
By: Susan Cain
-
Body Work
- The Radical Power of Personal Narrative
- By: Melissa Febos
- Narrated by: Melissa Febos
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and master class, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller's life and the questions which run through it.
-
-
A must!!!
- By Karen S on 02-13-23
By: Melissa Febos
-
The Bright Hour
- A Memoir of Living and Dying
- By: Nina Riggs
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exquisite memoir about how to live - and love - every day with "death in the room", from poet Nina Riggs, mother of two young sons and the direct descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the tradition of When Breath Becomes Air.
-
-
Awe inspiring legacy of A Brave Young Woman.
- By Julia on 06-18-17
By: Nina Riggs
-
The Grieving Brain
- The Surprising Science of How We Learn from Love and Loss
- By: Mary-Frances O'Connor
- Narrated by: Callie Beaulieu
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Based on O’Connor’s own trailblazing neuroimaging work, research in the field, and her real-life stories, The Grieving Brain combines storytelling, accessible science, and practical knowledge that will help us better understand what happens when we grieve and how to navigate loss with more ease and grace.
-
-
Interesting thoughts
- By GAD on 03-12-22
-
It's OK That You're Not OK
- Meeting Grief and Loss in a Culture That Doesn't Understand
- By: Megan Devine
- Narrated by: Megan Devine
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Megan Devine offers a profound new approach to both the experience of grief and the way we help others who have endured tragedy. Having experienced grief from both sides - as both a therapist and as a woman who witnessed the accidental drowning of her beloved partner - Megan writes with deep insight about the unspoken truths of loss, love, and healing.
-
-
The author of this book is capital-A Angry
- By A. E. Ober on 08-26-20
By: Megan Devine
-
A Heart That Works
- By: Rob Delaney
- Narrated by: Rob Delaney
- Length: 3 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2016, Rob Delaney’s one-year-old son, Henry, was diagnosed with a brain tumor. The family had moved from Los Angeles to London with their two young boys when Rob’s wife was pregnant with Henry, their third. The move was an adventure that would bind them even more tightly together as they navigated the novelty of London, the culture clashes, and the funhouse experience of Rob’s fame—thanks to his role as co-creator and co-star of the hit series Catastrophe. Henry’s illness was a cataclysm that changed everything about their lives.
-
-
Outstanding
- By michelle pollock on 12-08-22
By: Rob Delaney
-
Bittersweet
- How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole
- By: Susan Cain
- Narrated by: Susan Cain
- Length: 7 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With Quiet, Susan Cain urged our society to cultivate space for the undervalued, indispensable introverts among us, thereby revealing an untapped power hidden in plain sight. Now she employs the same mix of research, storytelling, and memoir to explore why we experience sorrow and longing, and how embracing the bittersweetness at the heart of life is the true path to creativity, connection, and transcendence.
-
-
I REALLY wanted to love this book!
- By Leo B. on 05-02-22
By: Susan Cain
-
Body Work
- The Radical Power of Personal Narrative
- By: Melissa Febos
- Narrated by: Melissa Febos
- Length: 3 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this bold and exhilarating mix of memoir and master class, Melissa Febos tackles the emotional, psychological, and physical work of writing intimately while offering an utterly fresh examination of the storyteller's life and the questions which run through it.
-
-
A must!!!
- By Karen S on 02-13-23
By: Melissa Febos
-
The Bright Hour
- A Memoir of Living and Dying
- By: Nina Riggs
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Kirby Heyborne
- Length: 7 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An exquisite memoir about how to live - and love - every day with "death in the room", from poet Nina Riggs, mother of two young sons and the direct descendant of Ralph Waldo Emerson, in the tradition of When Breath Becomes Air.
-
-
Awe inspiring legacy of A Brave Young Woman.
- By Julia on 06-18-17
By: Nina Riggs
-
Golem Girl
- A Memoir
- By: Riva Lehrer
- Narrated by: Riva Lehrer, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 14 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1958, Riva is one of the first children born with spina bifida to survive. Her parents and doctors are determined to "fix" her, sending the message over and over again that she is broken. That she will never have a job, a romantic relationship, or an independent life. Enduring countless medical interventions, Riva tries her best to be a good girl and a good patient in the quest to be cured. Everything changes when, as an adult, Riva is invited to join a group of artists, writers, and performers who are building Disability Culture.
-
-
One of the best disability themed books I’ve ever read
- By Justin & Ben on 01-18-23
By: Riva Lehrer
-
The In-Between
- Unforgettable Encounters During Life's Final Moments
- By: Hadley Vlahos R.N.
- Narrated by: Hadley Vlahos R.N.
- Length: 7 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Talking about death and dying is considered taboo in polite company, and even in the medical field. Our ideas about dying are confusing at best: Will our memories flash before our eyes? Regrets consume our thoughts? Does a bright light appear at the end of a tunnel? For most people, it will be a slower process, one eased with preparedness, good humor, and a bit of faith. At the forefront of changing attitudes around palliative care is hospice nurse Hadley Vlahos, who shows that end-of-life care can teach us just as much about how to live as it does about how we die.
-
-
Author's Reach is Beyond Her Grasp
- By CW on 07-26-23
-
Doctors and Friends
- By: Kimmery Martin
- Narrated by: Shannon McManus, Dorothy Dillingham Blue, Cassandra Campbell
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hannah, Compton, and Kira have been close friends since medical school, reuniting once a year for a much-needed vacation. Just as they gather to travel in Spain, an outbreak of a fast-spreading virus throws the world into chaos.
-
-
Post COVID
- By RueRue on 01-09-23
By: Kimmery Martin
-
Hello Beautiful
- A Novel
- By: Ann Napolitano
- Narrated by: Maura Tierney
- Length: 15 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him—so when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable: Sylvie, the family’s dreamer, is happiest with her nose in a book; Cecelia is a free-spirited artist; and Emeline patiently takes care of them all.
-
-
Book was great, performance terrible
- By Amazon Customer on 03-17-23
By: Ann Napolitano
-
Finding Chika
- A Little Girl, an Earthquake, and the Making of a Family
- By: Mitch Albom
- Narrated by: Mitch Albom
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chika Jeune was born three days before the devastating earthquake that decimated Haiti in 2010. She spent her infancy in a landscape of extreme poverty, and when her mother died giving birth to a baby brother, Chika was brought to The Have Faith Haiti Orphanage that Albom operates in Port Au Prince. With no children of their own, the 40-plus children who live, play, and go to school at the orphanage have become family to Mitch and his wife, Janine. But at age five, Chika is suddenly diagnosed with something a doctor there says "no one in Haiti can help you with."
-
-
BUY READ AND RECOMMEND THIS BOOK
- By The Birds. on 11-05-19
By: Mitch Albom
-
Between Two Kingdoms
- A Memoir of a Life Interrupted
- By: Suleika Jaouad
- Narrated by: Suleika Jaouad
- Length: 13 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the summer after graduating from college, Suleika Jaouad was preparing, as they say in commencement speeches, to enter “the real world”. She had fallen in love and moved to Paris to pursue her dream of becoming a war correspondent. The real world she found, however, would take her into a very different kind of conflict zone. It started with an itch - first on her feet, then up her legs, like a thousand invisible mosquito bites. Then a trip to the doctor and, a few weeks shy of her 23rd birthday, a diagnosis: leukemia, with a 35 percent chance of survival.
-
-
This was painful.
- By Meredith Nutrition on 07-31-22
By: Suleika Jaouad
-
While You Were Out
- An Intimate Family Portrait of Mental Illness in an Era of Silence
- By: Meg Kissinger
- Narrated by: Meg Kissinger
- Length: 11 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Growing up in the 1960s in the suburbs of Chicago, Meg Kissinger’s family seemed to live a charmed life. With eight kids and two loving parents, the Kissingers radiated a warm, boisterous energy. Whether they were spending summer days on the shores of Lake Michigan, barreling down the ski slopes, or navigating the trials of their Catholic school, the Kissingers always knew how to live large and play hard. But behind closed doors, a harsher reality was unfolding.
-
-
Thoughtful and mindful
- By James Thomas McIntyre on 09-11-23
By: Meg Kissinger
-
Happiness: A Memoir
- The Crooked Little Road to Semi-Ever After
- By: Heather Harpham
- Narrated by: Heather Harpham
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Happiness begins with a charming courtship between hopelessly attracted opposites: Heather, a world-roaming California girl, and Brian, an intellectual, homebody writer, kind and slyly funny, but loath to leave his Upper West Side studio. Their magical interlude ends, full stop, when Heather becomes pregnant - Brian is sure he loves her, only he doesn't want kids. Heather returns to California to deliver their daughter alone, buoyed by family and friends.
-
-
Long & Tedious. If Only She'd Had a Good Editor.
- By Carolyn on 07-05-18
By: Heather Harpham
-
No Cure for Being Human
- (And Other Truths I Need to Hear)
- By: Kate Bowler
- Narrated by: Kate Bowler
- Length: 4 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It’s hard to give up on the feeling that the life you really want is just out of reach. A beach body by summer. A trip to Disneyland around the corner. A promotion on the horizon. Everyone wants to believe that they are headed toward good, better, best. But what happens when the life you hoped for is put on hold indefinitely?
-
-
I Can’t Listen Anymore
- By Laurie on 10-01-21
By: Kate Bowler
-
Raising a Rare Girl
- A Memoir
- By: Heather Lanier
- Narrated by: Rebecca Lowman
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Like many women of her generation, Heather Lanier did everything by the book when she was expecting her first child. But her daughter, Fiona, challenged all of Lanier's preconceptions. Born with an ultra-rare syndrome known as Wolf-Hirschhorn, Fiona received a daunting prognosis: She would experience significant developmental delays and might not reach her second birthday. Award-winning writer Heather Lanier's memoir about raising a child with a rare syndrome, defying the tyranny of normal, and embracing parenthood as a spiritual practice that breaks us open in the best of ways.
-
-
Bravo! Bravo! Bravo!
- By Julee on 01-23-21
By: Heather Lanier
-
Flashback Girl
- Lessons on Resilience from a Burn Survivor
- By: Lise Deguire
- Narrated by: Julia Sismour
- Length: 9 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
At the age of four, Dr. Lise Deguire suffered third-degree burns on 65 percent of her body as the result of both maternal and corporate negligence. Against the odds, she lived through the trauma, beginning decades of treatment as a burn survivor. Some chapters of this gripping journey focus on early events, including the story of the fire, her years of painful surgeries in the hospital, social isolation, and bullying.
-
-
Vulnerable and real
- By Sara Roush on 06-13-23
By: Lise Deguire
-
When Life Gives You Pears
- The Healing Power of Family, Faith, and Funny People
- By: Jeannie Gaffigan
- Narrated by: Liz Noth, Jeannie Gaffigan, Jim Gaffigan
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In an audiobook that is The Big Sick meets Dad Is Fat, Jeannie Gaffigan, writer/director/producer/accused supermom and wife of best-selling author/comedian Jim Gaffigan, writes with humor and heart about the pear-sized brain tumor she had removed, the toll it took on her enormous family, and the priceless lessons she learned along the way.
-
-
Thanks God for reminding me who is in control
- By C. A. Pierson on 10-17-19
By: Jeannie Gaffigan
What listeners say about Crossing the River
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Sara Neufeld
- 10-29-22
Exquisite
As the mother of two young boys, one of whom began his life in the NICU, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to handle reading this book, but wow, am I glad I did. It is one of the most gorgeously written memoirs I’ve experienced, and the stories beautifully illustrate the resilience of the human spirit, the ability of grief and joy to co-exist, and the enduring power of love. Christopher, Carol and her reporting story subjects are firmly planted in my heart.
Cassandra Campbell is also one of my favorite narrators.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful