Beautiful Affliction BLOG TOUR
Lene Fogelberg is dying―she is sure of it―but no doctor in Sweden, her home country, believes her. Love stories enfold her, with the man who will become her husband, with her enchanting surroundings, and later, with her two precious daughters. But despite her happiness, the question she has carried in her heart since childhood―Will I die young?―is closing in, threatening all she holds dear, even her sanity. When her young family moves to the US, an answer, a diagnosis, is finally found: she is in the last stages of a fatal congenital heart disease. But is it too late?
Unflinchingly honest and often harrowing, Beautiful Affliction is an inspiring account of growing up and living on the verge of death―and of the beauty, harshness, loneliness, and, ultimately, unbending love that can be found there.
My Review
I want to say that Lene is a very lucky woman that she is alive today to share her story. What an amazing story it is. Lene was born with a heart murmur that left untreated for many years lead to a fatal congenital heart disease. One that left Lene trapped in her body with the heart of a ninety year old woman. I was intrigued by Lene's story because my sister's oldest son had to have heart surgery when he was just a baby. He was born premature at 6 months old. Barely weighing over 2 pounds. He had to stay in the hospital for about 3 more months. He is now 13 years old and you can not tell that he was ever born premature.
So reading this book I could imagine what it could have been like if the doctor's had not caught my nephew's heart condition in time. The way that this book was written with the present and then the different formatting and font of Lene's thoughts was nice. I really felt like I got to get close to her this way. When Lene would have an attack with her heart and she felt trapped in a bubble, there was a time or two where I too felt as if I was trapped in that bubble with all of the oxygen sucked out of the room. I found this book to be a very well written read.
About the author: Lene Fogelberg is an award-winning poet and double open-heart surgery survivor. Born in Sweden, she has made it a priority to live abroad in places like Germany, France and the United States, studying French, English and German along the way. She currently lives with her family in Indonesia, where she is working on a novel that takes place in Jakarta. Connect with Lene: lenefogelberg.com facebook.com/LeneFogelbergAuthor twitter.com/LeneFogelberg
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