{"product_id":"the-heart-folds-early-a-memoir-9781496246790","title":"The Heart Folds Early: A Memoir","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThis book is about what it means to make a choice. As mothers, how do we carry life and death in our bodies and survive with our hearts intact?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Heart Folds Early\u003c\/i\u003e is a story of transformation through tragedy, and an examination of the way in which great loss can make us simultaneously fearful and intrepid. Emerging from a childhood that included both devastating sexual abuse and the sustaining joy of being deeply (if imperfectly) loved, Jill Christman's sights were set on building and protecting her own happy family--until her fiancé was killed in a car accident.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChristman folds the mournful recklessness of the young widow she was against the backdrop of her later marriage and new motherhood, including the choice to end a half-term pregnancy when a routine ultrasound revealed her baby boy had just half a heart. Courageous, clear-eyed, tender, and unexpectedly funny, Christman's book reflects on her life and asks: What happens when we're afraid the worst thing will happen and then, sometimes, it does? What does it mean to make and live with a heartrending choice? How do we carry life and death in our bodies and survive with our hearts intact?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJill Christman\u003c\/b\u003e is the author of \u003ci\u003eIf This Were Fiction: A Love Story in Essays\u003c\/i\u003e (Nebraska, 2022), \u003ci\u003eDarkroom: A Family Exposure\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eBorrowed Babies: Apprenticing for Motherhood\u003c\/i\u003e. She is a professor in the Creative Writing Program at Ball State University, where she serves as editor of \u003ci\u003eRiver Teeth: A Journal of Nonfiction Narrative\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eBeautiful Things\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Nebraska Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52057746374930,"sku":"9781496246790","price":26.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_c7ab4f61-68c9-4185-ac47-ea42f62455fe.jpg?v=1772004886","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-heart-folds-early-a-memoir-9781496246790","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}