The Brave In-Between

Notes from the Last Room

by Amy Low

Review posted July 13, 2024.
Hachette Books, 2024. 210 pages.
Review written June 26, 2024, from an Advance Reader Copy.
Starred Review

First, great big thanks to my friend Suzanne for passing this Advance Reader Copy on to me. She knew I would like it, and she was absolutely correct. She knew I'd appreciate a memoir about divorce and picking up the pieces with a background of Christian faith.

This memoir is about those things - a husband's betrayal and trying to build her life again, with the help of her faith - but it's also about living in the "Last Room" - which is literally the last room of life. The book tells about the author's diagnosis with Stage IV colon cancer and four years of treatment, with no expectation of a cure. For years, she hasn't been expecting to live long, and this changes your perspective.

She begins the book with her husband taking tender care of her after surgery - when they were already divorced. Then she backs up and tells about the betrayal and all that followed. And then the doctor appointment when her life changed. And then what that means for dating, for time with her children, for her career, and how she thinks about life in general.

And she frames all of this with Philippians 4:8 -- "Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable -- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy -- think about such things." In the prologue she explains that in the last room she uses those intentions as spotlights to bring clarity to the chaos, and I love the way she weaves them and thoughts about them into her story.

I was riveted by this book and Amy Low's story -- and I was also uplifted. The book isn't heavy on Christian content, but it's there, and indeed her reflections on these values from Philippians make the story one of light and not of despair.