Eclipse by Sarah Wolbach

Sarah Wolbach’s Eclipse begins with a dimming sun and ends with her “plan to be wild:/ Up-fall into darkness,/become a bright stone.” In between, she presents a marriage that cycles through simple pleasures, the depths of difference, and seemingly intransigent grief. Love here is as varied as the phases of the moon, affection waxing and waning, darkness and light in relentless counterpoint. Eclipse reminds us how difficult, yet essential, our connection to an intimate other can be, both in life and, yes, in what comes after.

–Thomas Centolella, author of Almost Human and Views from Along the Middle Way

In reading Eclipse, one is reminded of Kafka’s admonition, “Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached.” Sarah Wolbach’s recount of piloting her life partner Roy through the final phase of a terminal illness plumbs the chasm dividing the one dying from the caregiver. Wolbach cracks open the dialectic between the myth of happily-ever-after and life’s reality, rendering a trenchant portrait of the self-sacrifice of love’s true labor. Wolbach’s brilliance lies in the startling frankness with which she describes the bewilderment and wonder that follows a complete collapse of reference and reconcilability, this collection a testament to the ultimate gifts of wonderment and compassion.

–Lise Goett, author of Leprosarium and The Radiant