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by Julie Howard Parker (Author)
A true story of two lovers pitted against a deadly enemy, Journey Beyond Despair introduces Julie, the quixotic author, whose conflict between airy ideals and earthly reality results in mental illness. Readers meet the fated couple in 1960 as Peter delivers his terrified wife to a Chicago psychiatric hospital, then returns home to pick up the pieces with three tiny daughters. Julie descends into the abyss of psychosis, but after slowly recovering with Peter's support she launches a forty-year quest to outwit patterns that block intimacy with the man she loves. Each escapade, chiefly one back to France, ends in relapse, leading at last to despair. But at the defining moment, Julie's insight and Peter's selflessness combine to spark a stunning twist neither foresees. Together, the two 'crack the code' of mental illness, showing its healing potential and lifting Julie's search for meaning to the realm of mythic/heroic journey.
