After This: When Life Is Over, Where Do We Go?

by Claire Bidwell Smith

Overview

In After This, acclaimed author, and therapist Claire Bidwell Smith confronts the question she encounters every day in private practice—what happens after we die?  

In an exploration of the afterlife that is part personal, part prescriptive—Smith invites us on her journey into the unknown. She wonders: How do we grieve our loved ones without proof that they live on? Will we ever see them again? Can they see us now, even though they are gone?
Chronicling our steps along the path that bridges this world and the next, Smith undergoes past-life regressions and sessions with mediums and psychics and immerses herself in the ceremonies of organized religion and the rigor of scientific experiments to try and find the answers.
 
Drawing on both her personal losses, recounted in her memoir The Rules of Inheritance, as well as her background working in hospice as a bereavement counselor, Smith attempts to show how exploring the afterlife can have a positive impact on the grief process.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781594633065
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/28/2015
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Claire Bidwell Smith is the author of The Rules of Inheritance and After This. The Rules of Inheritance has been published in seventeen countries and is currently being adapted for film. Claire has a master’s degree in clinical psychology and is a therapist specializing in grief. She regularly teaches writing workshops and gives talks on both writing and grief. Her work has appeared in numerous publications including The Huffington Post, Slate, Salon.com, Chicago Public Radio and BlackBook. She lives in Los Angeles with her two daughters. www.clairebidwellsmith.com

What People are Saying About This

Jillian Lauren

With deep compassion, profound vulnerability, and transcendent lyricism, Claire Bidwell Smith embraces that which we so often run from in this culture: loss. This is a transformative book that will change the way you think about death, and by extension, life. --Jillian Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Some Girls

Christa Parravani

Claire Bidwell Smith, with her writer's heart and therapist's mind, has written a stunningly generous book alive with curiosity, humility, skepticism, and bravery. In After This you will teeter on the edge of the Spirit world; and whether you believe, or wish to, or simply can't, Bidwell Smith has written one of the most inspiring books about death you will ever read. --Christa Parravani, author of Her: A Memoir

From the Publisher

Praise for After This:
 
"With wisdom and grace, Claire Bidwell Smith navigates the mysteries of grief to show us that there is great meaning and even magic to be found in exploring the unknown."
—Maria Shriver, bestselling author of What's Heaven? 
 
“Claire Bidwell Smith, with her writer’s heart and therapist’s mind, has written a stunningly generous book alive with curiosity, humility, skepticism, and bravery. In After This you will teeter on the edge of the Spirit world; and whether you believe, or wish to, or simply can’t, Bidwell Smith has written one of the most inspiring books about death you will ever read.” —Christa Parravani, author of Her: A Memoir
 
"A transfixing ode to the enigmatic cycle of life and death, After This will resonate with seekers and skeptics alike. Grief therapist Claire Bidwell Smith explores in lyrical prose tricky existential terrain with compelling philosophical persistence, humility, and poise. You will not forget this book." —Aidan Donnelley Rowley, author of Life After Yes
“With deep compassion, profound vulnerability, and transcendent lyricism, Claire Bidwell Smith embraces that which we so often run from in this culture: loss. This is a transformative book that will change the way you think about death, and by extension, life.” 
—Jillian Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Some Girls
 
“In this eloquent, smart, funny and deeply thoughtful book, Claire Bidwell Smith takes us on a powerful journey of discovery.  She asks the most important questions about life, love, death, and what it means to be human, and does so with equal measures of skepticism and a broken-open heart.  By doing so, she becomes an utterly trustworthy guide.  Reader, follow her.  You’ll be so glad you did.” —Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion and Still Writing

Praise for The Rules of Inheritance:

“A brave and intelligent book about big loss and even bigger love. The gritty truth and hard-won grace in this beautiful memoir astonishes me.” –Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild

“Gitty, poetic, and illuminating.” –O, The Oprah Magazine

“Vivid, real and gripping.” --Blackbook magazine

“Gorgeously written, compulsively readable, and heartbreakingly true, The Rules of Inheritance is a small masterpiece of honesty.” –Hope Edelman, author of Motherless Daughters
 

Aidan Donnelley Rowley

A transfixing ode to the enigmatic cycle of life and death, After This will resonate with seekers and skeptics alike. Grief therapist Claire Bidwell Smith explores in lyrical prose tricky existential terrain with compelling philosophical persistence, humility, and poise. You will not forget this book. --Aidan Donnelley Rowley, author of Life After Yes

Maria Shriver

With wisdom and grace, Claire Bidwell Smith navigates the mysteries of grief to show us that there is great meaning and even magic to be found in exploring the unknown. --Maria Shriver, bestselling author of What's Heaven?

Editorial Reviews

Praise for After This:
 
"With wisdom and grace, Claire Bidwell Smith navigates the mysteries of grief to show us that there is great meaning and even magic to be found in exploring the unknown."
—Maria Shriver, bestselling author of What's Heaven? 
 
"This is the book I wish I had when my husband died. Claire took me on a quest attempting to answer all the crazy questions I had after his death. Engrossing from page one all the way to the very end." —Christina Rasmussen, author of Second Firsts: Live, Laugh and Love Again
 
“Claire Bidwell Smith, with her writer’s heart and therapist’s mind, has written a stunningly generous book alive with curiosity, humility, skepticism, and bravery. In After This you will teeter on the edge of the Spirit world; and whether you believe, or wish to, or simply can’t, Bidwell Smith has written one of the most inspiring books about death you will ever read.” –Christa Parravani, author of Her: A Memoir
 
"A transfixing ode to the enigmatic cycle of life and death, After This will resonate with seekers and skeptics alike. Grief therapist Claire Bidwell Smith explores in lyrical prose tricky existential terrain with compelling philosophical persistence, humility, and poise. You will not forget this book." —Aidan Donnelley Rowley, author of Life After Yes

“With deep compassion, profound vulnerability, and transcendent lyricism, Claire Bidwell Smith embraces that which we so often run from in this culture: loss. This is a transformative book that will change the way you think about death, and by extension, life.” 
—Jillian Lauren, New York Times bestselling author of Some Girls
 
“In this eloquent, smart, funny and deeply thoughtful book, Claire Bidwell Smith takes us on a powerful journey of discovery.  She asks the most important questions about life, love, death, and what it means to be human, and does so with equal measures of skepticism and a broken-open heart.  By doing so, she becomes an utterly trustworthy guide.  Reader, follow her.  You’ll be so glad you did.” –Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion and Still Writing
 
“Claire Bidwell Smith’s tender journey of love and loss will leave you feeling connected and hopeful.” —David Kessler, co-author of On Grief and Grieving with Elisabeth Kübler Ross.

From the Publisher