I wish this were a different kind of story. But this is a book about befores and afters and how people in the midst of pain make up their minds about the eternal questions: Why? Why is this happening to me? What could I have done differently? Does everything actually happen for a reason? If I accept that what is happening is something I cannot change, can I learn how to let go?
-- Kate Bowler (Preface)

Importance: This quote sets up the author's purpose for the book as well as some of its central themes. At it's heart, this book is about how people in times of tragedy learn to live with death and how they respond to a cultural ethos that believes people have control over their lives and that suffering has a purpose. The question of what one could have done differently also speaks to the belief that life is fair and...