His Bright Light - Softcover

Danielle Steel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0552164194 ISBN 13: 9780552164191

Publisher: Corgi, 2010

Synopsis

This is the story of an extraordinary boy with a brilliant mind, a heart of gold and a tortured soul.' From the day he was born, Nick Traina was his mother's joy. By nineteen, he was dead. This is Danielle Steel's powerful story of the son she lost and the lessons she learned during his courageous battle against darkness. Sharing tender, painful memories, Steel brings us a haunting duet between and singular young man and the mother who loved him - and a harrowing portrait of a masked killer called manic depression. Nick rocketed through life like a shooting star. He spoke in full sentences at the age of one. He was a brilliant, charming child who never slept. His gift for writing was extraordinary, his musical talent promised a golden future. But by the time he entered junior high, he was hurtling towards disaster. His mother tried desperately to get him the help he needed - the opening salvos for what would become a ferocious battle for his life. At once a loving legacy and an unsparing depiction of a devastating illness, Danielle Steel's tribute to her lost son is a gift of life, hope, healing and understanding to us all. 'I want to share the story, and the pain, the courage, the love, and what I learned in living through it...My hope is that someone will be able to use what we learned, and save a life with it'

About this title

Review:

It's hard to listen to any story that deals with the loss of a child, but Danielle Steel's memoir of her son, Nick Traina, is both tender and engrossing. In this unabridged audio version of His Bright Light, Steel leads us through Nick's battle with manic depression and her fight to help him survive. Although Steel herself narrates the introduction, actress Traci Godfrey, who portrays the author's strong emotions without becoming maudlin, reads the book. Anyone who has known a loved one affected by depression will identify strongly with Ms. Steel's passionate recollections of her son's life. (Running time: 9.5 hours, two cassettes) --Sharon Griggins

From the Inside Flap:

"This is the story of an extraordinary boy with a brilliant mind, a heart of gold, and a tortured soul. It is the story of an illness, a fight to live, and a race against death."

From the day he was born, Nick Traina was his mother's joy. By nineteen, he was dead. This is Danielle Steel's powerful personal story of the son she lost and the lessons she learned during his courageous battle against darkness. Sharing tender, painful memories and Nick's remarkable journals, Steel brings us a haunting duet between a singular young man and the mother who loved him--and a harrowing portrait of a masked killer called manic depression, which afflicts between two and three million Americans.

Nick rocketed through life like a shooting star. Signs of his illness were subtle, often paradoxical. He spoke in full sentences at age one. He was a brilliant, charming child who never slept. And at first, even his mother explained away his quicksilver moods. Nick always marched to a different drummer. His gift for writing was extraordinary, his musical talent promised a golden future. But by the time he entered junior high, Danielle Steel saw her beloved son hurtling toward disaster and tried desperately to get Nick the help he needed--the opening salvos of what would become a ferocious pitched battle for his life.

Even as he struggled, Nick's charisma and accomplishments remained undimmed. He bared his soul in his journal with uncanny insight, in searing prose, poetry, and song. When he was finally diagnosed and treated, it bought time, but too little. In the end, perhaps nothing could have saved him from the insidious disease that had shadowed him from his earliest years.

At once a loving legacy and an unsparing depiction of a devastating illness, Danielle Steel's tribute to her lost son is a gift of life, hope, healing, and understanding to us all.

About this edition

• Publisher: Corgi
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0552164194
• ISBN 13: 9780552164191
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 415