Smith, Emily Wing

Six young people in a small Utah Mormon community describe how they coped with the death of Joel Espen, a sixteen-year-old who died while hiking, and how Joel's life affected theirs.

Six young people in a small Utah Mormon community describe how they coped with the death of Joel Espen, a sixteen-year-old who died while hiking, and how Joel's life affected theirs.

All during her childhood, Emily felt different from other kids. Between therapist visits, sudden uncontrollable bursts of anger, and unexplained episodes of dizziness and loss of coordination, things were always worse for her. For years, her only escape was through the stories she'd craft about herself and the world around her. But it wasn't until a near-fatal accident at twelve years of age that Emily and her family discover the truth: a grapefruit sized benign brain tumor at the base of her skull. In turns candid, angry, and beautiful, Emily Wing Smith's memoir chronicles her struggles with both mental and physical disabilities during her childhood and the means by which she coped with it all---writing.

When her boyfriend Zan leaves high school in Utah a year early to attend Pitzer College, a broken-hearted Joy and Zan's best friend Noah take off on a road trip to California seeking "closure.".

Joel Espen could never really be who he truly was in the small town of Haven. Even the way he died was different: helping others. As the six teenagers who were closest to Joel try to find out the meaning behind his death, they begin to realize that tragedy can sometimes free those who are left behind.