Cathy Rentzenbrink’s The Last Act of Love: Excerpt #1

The years collapse, and I see myself kneeling and crying and begging, with my hands clasped together in prayer, talking to some unknown force.

Please don’t let him die, please don’t let him die, please, I’ll do anything, only please don’t let him die.

What strikes me now as it never has before is that I can’t say my prayers went unanswered. I was given what I asked for. My brother did not die. But I did not know then that I was praying for the wrong thing.

— Cathy Rentzenbrink, The Last Act of Love (2015), p. 3.

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Quote · Sat, 5 Nov 2016Wed, 17 Nov 2021 ·

BookTalk event, 16 Nov 2016: Meet the Author—Cathy Rentzenbrink

Our second 2016/17 event is a special BookTalk in collaboration with the Paristamen CIO funder-initiative on death and dying, as part of the Being Human festival. We welcome acclaimed writer, Cathy Rentzenbrink, for a ‘Meet the Author’ session in conversation with Jenny Kitzinger about love and loss and her remarkable memoir, The Last Act of Love, which was both a Sunday Times bestseller and shortlisted for The Wellcome Trust Prize.