{"product_id":"in-the-unwalled-city-9781639821150","title":"In the Unwalled City","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eIn the Unwalled City\u003c\/em\u003e takes its title from Epicurus, who wrote: \"Against other things it is possible to obtain security, but when it comes to death, we human beings all live in an unwalled city.\"\u003c\/strong\u003e This affecting book-which weaves prose memoir with poetry-explores that feeling of being open to attack-in this case the pain of grief after Robert Cording's thirty-one-year-old son Daniel died. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eTo borrow a phrase from C.S. Lewis, here is \"a grief observed,\" encompassing not only the big questions but also the impact of grief on daily life. For a poet like Cording, one form that grief takes is that of speaking to his son. In \"Afterlife,\" Cording has a vision of his son replying: \"let the emptiness remain empty . . . Stop writing down \/ everything you think I'm telling you. \/ This is your afterlife, not mine.\"\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAt the heart of \u003cem\u003eIn the Unwalled City \u003c\/em\u003eis a series of questions: How does loss change a person? How does one chart a new life that both acknowledges a son's death and still finds a way back to delight? How does one now live fully in the unwalled city? \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Slant Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50390094119186,"sku":"9781639821150","price":23.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_900f0825-78b5-4504-bd3d-5c319d09bdfe.jpg?v=1728939370","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/in-the-unwalled-city-9781639821150","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}