Long Way Home : Father Lost, Father Found

It’s the 1960s, and Miriam’s Jewish parents uproot her family, transplanting the New York five-some to a thoroughly non-Jewish New Jersey suburb, seeking upward mobility. They leave behind a family history complete with grandparents who fled the Russian Revolution to find peace and security in the Jewish communities of New York.

Then disaster strikes. Just after her seventh birthday, Miriam loses her father to a sudden heart attack. Born and raised a secular Jew, Miriam is lost and alone, finding no comfort in religion—only ever-increasing financial and emotional insecurity and lack of identity. Despair follows as the family relocates back to a tiny apartment in New York.

As she grows up, Miriam seeks comfort in sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll. She meets a boy who will eventually stay by her side, but she still feels empty and adrift. She tries eastern religions, the occult, and black magic. Desperation finally leads her to open the Bible to the book of Isaiah.

After her powerful encounter with the God of Israel, this first book of a planned two-part memoir ends with Miriam on the cusp of a new life with her new husband. But Miriam’s real story is just beginning.

Miriam Kook has lived a full life. She spent 11 year living with her family in the Middle East and has been studying music and piano since the age of four. She's passionate about songwriting, community theater, leading worship, and creating and leading Bible studies. Her love of music continues to this day with her current projects: co-writing a musical about adoption and producing a musical she has written about the prophet Samuel.

Kook wrote Miriam's Story so that all may know that God's arm is not too short to save and that his love is limitless.

Kook lives in Maryland with her husband, Doug. Together, they have three children and four grandchildren.