On the Ledge: A Memoir

(Paperback)

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In 1957, when Amy Turner was four years old, her father had to be talked down from a hotel ledge by a priest. The story of his attempted suicide received nationwide press coverage, and he spent months in a psychiatric facility before returning home. From then on, Amy constantly worried about him for reasons she didn't yet fully understand, triggering a pattern of hypervigilance that would plague her into adulthood.

In 2010, fifty-five years after her fathers attempted suicide, Amynow a wife, mother, and lawyer-turned-schoolteacheris convinced shes dealt with all the psychological reverberations of her childhood. Then she steps into a crosswalk and is mowed down by a pickup truckan accident that nearly kills her, and that ultimately propels her on a remarkable emotional journey. With the help ofacupuncture, somatic-oriented therapies, and serendipities that might be attributed to grace, Amy first unravels the trauma of her own brush with death and then, unexpectedly, heals the childhood trauma buried far deeper.

Poignant and intimate, On the Ledge is Amys insightful and surprisingly humorous chronicle of coming to terms with herself and her parents as the distinct, vulnerable individuals they are. Perhaps more meaningfully, it offers proof that no matter how far along you are in life, it's never too late to find yourself.

Reviews

. . . a refreshing, engaging, entertaining debut with a thread of hope woven throughout that echoes at the end.
Dorothy Rice,Storycircle Book Reviews

. . . an intriguing memoir . . . that many readers will find relatable. . . . Afrank and engagingportrait of one familys struggles with mental illness.
Kirkus Reviews

This remarkable story of a woman's journey toward healing after a random, shocking accident takes us back in time into the home of an unusual family and theseminalevent that shaped them all. In peeling back layers of trauma and revisiting key moments from her past, Turner comes to a new understanding of what it means to be a daughter, a mother, a woman, and a seeker of truth. This is a riveting story of courage and redemption. And dare I say that parts of it are very, very funny
Hope Edelman, #1New York Timesbest-selling author of Motherless Daughtersand The AfterGrief

On the Ledgeis an extraordinary memoir of the way trauma harms both body and soul. Amy Turners near-miss with death at the age of fifty-seven propels her on a journey back through family history, leading to a new understanding of how her fathers attempted suicide and her mothers determination to move on has shapedand limitedher since the age of four. Inspirational and beautifully told.
Susan Scarf Merrell, author of Shirley:A Novel,now a major motion picture

Amy Turner has laid bare her own life, and that of her family, in ways that are alternately heartbreaking, poignant, and transcendent. With a novelists skill in terms of interweaving time and theme, and with breathtaking prose, she viscerally conveys the legacy of shame, silence, and grit that comprises her journey to ultimate understanding, forgiveness, and self-revelation. A must-read for anyone interested in families, mental health, and sheer humanity.
Stephen P. Hinshaw,professor and author of Another Kind of Madness: A Journey through the Stigma and Hope of Mental Illness

In her strong, gracious memoir, On the Ledge,Amy Turner deftly explores anxietys pernicious cruelty. The flashes of insight into the toll that anxiety takes onthe human spirit are never self-pitying, but constantly poignant and revealing.
Lou Ann Walker,author ofA Loss for Words:The Story of Deafness in a Family

In lyrical and vivid prose, Amy Turner reckons with her family secrets and how they dug their roots deep into her psyche. With trauma as the inciting force, Turner courageously comes to terms with her past and present, showing us how choosing to lean into the scars can reveal paths forward. On the Ledgeis a compelling read, told with grace, vulnerability, and depth.
Rachel Michelberg, author ofCrash: How I Became a Reluctant Caregiver

Amy Turner artfully weaves the effects of her own near tragedyshe was run over by a truck, literallyinto her lifelong search for the truth behind the very public rescue of her father from his precarious perch on the fifty-foot-high ledge of his hotel window. Through it all, her writing sparkles with insight, wit, self-deprecating humor, and subtle understatement. So skilled and honest is her prose that I felt myself no longer a mere reader, but a kindred soul in her struggles.
Terry Marshall,coauthor ofA Rendezvous to Remember

Absorbing, direct, humorous, horrific, On the Ledgeexplores the edge of madness as an artful memoir that also addresses two growing contemporary concerns: suicide and addiction. Timely, significant, well written, this is a courageous and engaging account, neither didactic nor sentimental, that belongs on school shelves as well as in the home.
Joan Baum,host of NPRsBaum on Books

Her mother drank, her father went off his head ina way that madenewspaper headlines, and four-year-old Amy Turner was left to pick up the pieces. Years later, after a devastating accident of her own, she begins to fit theshards of her upbringing together into an evocative portrait of a family whose secrets nearly buried them all. On the Ledge is sad, funny, wise, and lit with grace.
Tad Friend, author ofIn the Early Times

Author Bio

Amy Turner was born in Bronxville, New York, and is a graduate of Boston University, with a degree in political science, and of New York Law School, with a Juris Doctor Degree. After practicing law (rather unhappily) for twenty-two years, she finally found the courage to change careers at forty-eight and become a (very happy) seventh grade social studies teacher. A long time meditator and avid reader who loves to swim and bike, Amy lives in East Hampton, New York, with her husband, Ed, to whom shes been married for forty years. They have two sons. On the Ledge is Amys first book.