Softly, As I Leave You: A novel about mental illness & hope. Based on the journal writings of Shayne, a victim of suicide.

A novel about mental illness and hope. Based on the journal writings of Shayne, a victim of suicide. Shayne was thirty-three when she took her life. A year later, in the novel, her family gathers to wade through the stack of journals she left behind. During the weekend retreat, they are led by a psychiatrist with the goal of better understanding what happened and why. Can Britt cool his anger at his departed sister? Can the family finally accept her loss? Is it possible her journal writings might inspire others to survive? In Shayne’s own words, readers are taken through raw emotions of self-loathing, anorexia, mutilation and manipulation as her most intimate secrets are slowly revealed to the family. Her phoenix-like relationship syndrome, time and again, made her reach out to God, therapists and men to pull her from the vortex of sadness. Through her writings, will Shayne come back to help her beloved family? This poignant, at times humorous story centers around the real life of Shayne Ann Kohout, the beautiful person everyone wanted to be. Everyone except Shayne.