Pack Up the Moon

Product Information

As Lauren's disease progresses, Joshua struggles to make the most of the time he has left with his wife and to come to terms with his future--a future without the only woman he's ever loved. He's so consumed with finding a way to avoid the inevitable ending that he never imagines his life after Lauren.

Being a widower is not something Joshua Park ever expected. Given his solitary job as a scientist, his small circle of friends and family, and the social awkwardness he’s always suffered from, Josh has no idea how to negotiate this new, unwanted phase of life. But his beloved wife Lauren had a plan to keep him moving forward, to lead him on a journey through grief, anger, and denial—twelve letters. Funny, heartbreaking and uplifting, New York Times bestselling author Kristan Higgins delivers an unforgettable romance about how love can transcend even the greatest obstacles.Joshua and Lauren are the perfect couple. Newly married, they're wildly in love, each on a successful and rewarding career path. Then Lauren is diagnosed with a terminal illness. They used to joke about her “honey do” lists. He just never realized how much he would need one when she was gone. Twelve letters to see him through the first year without her, and to lead him on a heartrending, beautiful, often humorous journey to find joy again. From his first outing as a widower to buy groceries to finding a new best friend while sobbingin a clothing store, Joshua’s grief makes room for him to learn Lauren’s most valuable lesson: The path to happiness doesn’t follow a straight line. Everyone began filing out of the church. Josh waited, being at the front of the church. His mom slid her arm through his. “Hang in there, honey,” she whispered. He nodded. They both watched as Ben and Sumi Kim, his mother’s best friends and next-door neighbors, went to the altar and stood in front of Lauren’s picture.

After Joshua and Lauren are newly married, they find out that Lauren has a fatal disease, IPF, which causes fibrous material to grow in her lungs and make breathing difficult. These two are the kind of couple everyone is jealous of – so in love. Joshua is a medical device inventor and turns his life work into finding a solution for Lauren’s illness. The book is told in alternating voices and timelines – but that does not make it confusing. It serves to show Lauren’s thoughts before her death, and Josh’s life and struggle after her death. Although her illness makes it seemingly impossible, she finds a way to live the best life possible with the love of her life. The beginning line is her writing a letter to her deceased father in which she says,For someone like the speaker who has suffered a loss, the world is transformed. But to everyone else, nothing changes. Time doesn’t slow down, and no one cares what’s happening. The indifference of the world plagues the speaker in this poem. They plead with the world to feel as they do, understand his grief, and even participate in it. I fell In love with Lauren and how brave she was facing her own death but always focused on helping her husband through his grief. And Josh… well he stole my heart completely. Do men like this exist? The magnitude of his love for Lauren brought me to tears. Everyone deserves a Josh in their lives. Readers will be riveted as the well-drawn characters uncover one another’s hidden depths and heal old wounds. This rich and memorable story will instantly win readers over.”— Publishers Weekly ( starred review) As his grief makes room for new friendships and experiences, Joshua learns Lauren's most valuable lesson: the path to happiness doesn't follow a straight line.

Emma is twenty-six, pretty, intelligent, and happily living with her childhood sweetheart John in a cute little Dublin apartment. Her biggest problem is that her mother won't stop nagging her to get married already. Emma and John feel like the perfect couple, their future alive with possibilities. But out of the blue, a tragedy throws her life into disarray, and Emma is suddenly, incomprehensibly, alone. As she emerges from grief, Emma has to find a whole new way of living, and her loyal friends rally round in an attempt to help. One with a yard for Pebbles, grass for you to cut, a garden where you can grow tomatoes, because you love tomatoes fresh from the vine, warm from the sun. I want you to have neighbors to wave to, and I want you to shovel some old lady’s walk when it snows. I want little kids to ring your doorbell on Halloween. I want you to walk out to the mailbox and chat with the nice folks across the street.

Higgins is a mastermind of family dynamics in this poignant novel about two different generations of women struggling to find common ground. I couldn’t put it down!”—Emily Liebert, author of Some Women

Higgins is a mastermind of family dynamics in this poignant novel about two different generations of women struggling to find common ground. I couldn t put it down! Emily Liebert, author of Some WomenKristan Higgins is at the top of her game, stirring the emotions of every woman with the poignant reality of her characters. #1 New York Times bestselling author Robyn Carr Within ‘Funeral Blues’Auden makes use of several poetic techniques. These include caesura, anaphora, alliteration, enjambment and hyperbole. The first, caesura,occurs when a line is split in half, sometimes with punctuation, sometimes not. For example, the fourth line of the first stanza, as well as the fourth line of the third stanza. A tearjerker that left me both completely bereft and hopeful. Kristan Higgins: thank you for always managing to deliver and then some.