The Forgiveness Tour
How To Find the Perfect Apology
Published on 23. July 2024
Book
Paperback/Softback
264 pages
978-1-5107-8164-1 (ISBN)
Description
How Apologies Can Help You Move Forward With Your Life
"To err is human; to forgive divine." But what if the person who hurt you most refuses to apologize or express any regret?
That's the question haunting Manhattan journalist Susan Shapiro when her trusted advisor of fifteen years repeatedly lies to her. Stunned by the betrayal, she can barely eat or sleep. She's always seen herself as big-hearted and benevolent, someone who will forgive anyone anything -as long as they're remorseful. Yet the addiction specialist who helped her quit smoking, drinking, and drugs after decades of self-destruction won't explain-or stop-his ongoing deceit, leaving her blindsided. Her crisis management strategy is becoming her crisis.
To protect her sanity and sobriety, Shapiro ends their relationship and vows they'll never speak again. Yet ghosting him doesn't end her distress. She has screaming arguments with him in her mind, relives their fallout in panicked nightmares and even lights a candle, chanting a secret Yiddish curse to exact revenge.
In her entrancing, heartfelt new memoir The Forgiveness Tour: How to Find the Perfect Apology, Shapiro wrestles with how to exonerate someone who can't cough up a measly "my bad" or mumble "mea culpa." Seeking wisdom, she explores the billion-dollar forgiveness industry touting the personal benefits of absolution, where the only choice on every channel is: radical forgiveness. She fears it's all bullshit.
Desperate for enlightenment, she surveys her old rabbis, as well as religious leaders from every denomination. Unable to reconcile all the confusing abstractions, she embarks on a cross country journey where she interviews people who suffered unforgivable wrongs that were never atoned: victims of genocides, sexual assault, infidelity, cruelty and racism. A Holocaust survivor in D.C. admits he's thrived from spite. A Michigan man meets with the drunk driver who killed his wife and children. A daughter in Seattle grapples with her mother-who stayed married to the father who raped her. Knowing their estrangement isn't her fault, a Florida mom spends eight years apologizing to her son anyway-with surprising results. Does love mean forever having to say you're sorry?
Critics praised Shapiro's previous memoir Lighting Up: How I Stopped Smoking, Drinking and Everything Else I Loved in Life Except Sex as fiercely honest, fascinating, funny and "a mind-bendingly good read." Now the bestselling author and popular writing professor returns with a darker, wiser follow-up, addressing the universal enigma of blind forgiving.
Shapiro's brilliant new gurus sooth her broken psyche and answer her burning mystery: How can you forgive someone without an apology? Does she? Should you?
"To err is human; to forgive divine." But what if the person who hurt you most refuses to apologize or express any regret?
That's the question haunting Manhattan journalist Susan Shapiro when her trusted advisor of fifteen years repeatedly lies to her. Stunned by the betrayal, she can barely eat or sleep. She's always seen herself as big-hearted and benevolent, someone who will forgive anyone anything -as long as they're remorseful. Yet the addiction specialist who helped her quit smoking, drinking, and drugs after decades of self-destruction won't explain-or stop-his ongoing deceit, leaving her blindsided. Her crisis management strategy is becoming her crisis.
To protect her sanity and sobriety, Shapiro ends their relationship and vows they'll never speak again. Yet ghosting him doesn't end her distress. She has screaming arguments with him in her mind, relives their fallout in panicked nightmares and even lights a candle, chanting a secret Yiddish curse to exact revenge.
In her entrancing, heartfelt new memoir The Forgiveness Tour: How to Find the Perfect Apology, Shapiro wrestles with how to exonerate someone who can't cough up a measly "my bad" or mumble "mea culpa." Seeking wisdom, she explores the billion-dollar forgiveness industry touting the personal benefits of absolution, where the only choice on every channel is: radical forgiveness. She fears it's all bullshit.
Desperate for enlightenment, she surveys her old rabbis, as well as religious leaders from every denomination. Unable to reconcile all the confusing abstractions, she embarks on a cross country journey where she interviews people who suffered unforgivable wrongs that were never atoned: victims of genocides, sexual assault, infidelity, cruelty and racism. A Holocaust survivor in D.C. admits he's thrived from spite. A Michigan man meets with the drunk driver who killed his wife and children. A daughter in Seattle grapples with her mother-who stayed married to the father who raped her. Knowing their estrangement isn't her fault, a Florida mom spends eight years apologizing to her son anyway-with surprising results. Does love mean forever having to say you're sorry?
Critics praised Shapiro's previous memoir Lighting Up: How I Stopped Smoking, Drinking and Everything Else I Loved in Life Except Sex as fiercely honest, fascinating, funny and "a mind-bendingly good read." Now the bestselling author and popular writing professor returns with a darker, wiser follow-up, addressing the universal enigma of blind forgiving.
Shapiro's brilliant new gurus sooth her broken psyche and answer her burning mystery: How can you forgive someone without an apology? Does she? Should you?
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Publishing group
Skyhorse Publishing
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
Illustrations
Dimensions
Height: 206 mm
Width: 137 mm
Thickness: 23 mm
Weight
272 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-5107-8164-1 (9781510781641)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Susan Shapiro, an award-winning writing professor,freelancesforThe New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Salon, Tablet, The Forward, Elle, Marie Claire, Oprah, Wired, andThe New Yorkeronline.She'sthe national bestselling author/coauthor of13books her family hates, includingUnhooked,Five Men Who Broke My Heart, Lighting Up, The Bosnia ListandThe Byline Bible.She and her scriptwriter husband, a New York University professor, live in Greenwich Village, where she teaches her popular "instant gratification takes too long" classes at The New School, NYU, Columbia University,and privately online. Follow her on Twitter @susanshapironet and Instagram@Profsue123.