Wellfleet Public Library

US, AFTER a Memoir of Love and Suicide

Author Talk: Rachel Zimmerman, In Conversation with Psychologist Jonathan Adler

When a state trooper appeared at Rachel Zimmerman's door to report that her husband had jumped to his death off a nearby bridge, she fell to her knees, unable to fully absorb the news. How could the man she'd married, a devoted father and robotics professor at MIT, have committed such a violent act? How would she explain this to her young daughters? And could devastation and resurgence, digging into the struggle between public and private selves, life's shifting perspectives, the work of motherhood, and the secrets we keep. In this memoir, Zimmerman confronts the unimaginable and discovers the good in what remains.

Rachel Zimmerman, an award-winning journalist, has written about health and medicine for more than two decades. A contributor to The Washington Post, she previously worked as a staff writer for The Wall Street Journal and a health reporter for WBUR, Boston's public radio station. Her articles and essays have appeared in The New York Times, Vogue, O: the Oprah Magazine, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post and Slate, among others. She lives in Cambridge with her family.