A Hole in the World by Amanda Held Opelt

 

Are you grieving or do you know someone who is? A Hole In the World by Amanda Held Opelt may be just the book to read right now.

Opelt is the sister of New York Times' bestselling writer, Rachel Held Evans, who passed away in 2019. Opelt also had three miscarriages nad her grandmother passed away shortly before her sister. This writer suffered a big season of loss and she chose to write about it in this book. A Hole In the World is a mix of her personal stories along with some history of the rituals of grief in both our modern world and through the ages from Bible times forward. 

The book begins as the author navigates Ash Wednesday after her sister died. She is struggling to understand her own grief process and what it means to grieve well. As she struggles to find those answers, she takes the reader through the rituals of grief through the ages: Keening, Covering Mirrors, Sitting Shivah, Wearing Black, Sympathy Cards and more. I found a lot of this information to be fascinating. I especially enjoyed the chapter on Telling the Bees relating to fear, Casseroles and feeding the body, and Sympathy Cards relating to words. 

A Hole in the World is a book to make the reader think and reflect. I simply couldn't read it fast. I would read and then take time to reflect. I could relate to much of what the author shared in her personal experiences in some way as I grieved my own losses in the past. I also appreciated all of the history of grieving practices both in the Bible times and through the ages. I found it all interesting. Opelt writes in such a way that the book is easy to read and relate to, even though it is somewhat deep in places. 

Besides reading the book individually, A Hole in the World would be a good book for those working in grief counseling and in groups where grief is processed together. There are no discussion questions in the back, but I believe the book would generate a lot of discussion in those settings.

I received an Advanced Copy of this book from the publisher. All opinions within this review are my own.