Falling Apart in One Piece: One Optimist's Journey Through the Hell of Divorce »

Stacy Morrison is the editor in chief of Redbook magazine. Under her guidance, the magazine has found new vibrancy and relevance for today’s generations, winning a Folio award for General Excellence (2005), a Clarion award for General Excellence (2007), and a National Magazine Award nomination for Personal Service (2006). She has appeared as an expert on women, love, sex, money and more on the Today Show, CNN Headline News, CNN Moneyline, and The Early Show, among many other TV programs.

Before becoming editor in chief of Redbook magazine, she was Executive Editor at Marie Claire, working on the international advocacy projects, and had previously been the editor in chief of Modern Bride magazine and the venture-funded dot.com/magazine about design, One (which won three Ozzie awards in its short lifespan). She was also a part of the launches of Conde Nast Sports for Women, Time Out New York, and Mirabella magazine.

She lives in Brooklyn with her 4-year-old son, Zack, whose father is at the house many, many times a week.

The emotionally charged story of a divorce that brought the surprising gift of grace

Just when Stacy Morrison thought everything in her life had come together, her husband of ten years announced that he wanted a divorce. She was left alone with a new house that needed a lot of work, a new baby who needed a lot of attention, and a new job in the high-pressure world of New York magazine publishing.

Morrison had never been one to believe in fairy tales. As far as she was concerned, happy endings were the product of the kind of ambition and hard work that had propelled her to the top of her profession. But she had always considered her relationship with her husband a safe place in her often stressful life. All of her assumptions about how life works crumbled, though, when she discovered that no amount of will and determination was going to save her marriage.

For Stacy, the only solution was to keep on living, and to listen—as deeply and openly as possible—to what this experience was teaching her.

Told with humor and heart, her honest and intimate account of the stress of being a working mother while trying to make sense of her unraveling marriage offers unexpected lessons of love, forgiveness, and dignity that will resonate with women everywhere.

Publishers Weekly

Redbook editor-in-chief Morrison offers a gooey, reassuring, roll-with-the-punches account of how she soldiered bravely on after her husband declared abruptly that he wanted out of their nine-year marriage. When Chris, an aspiring film writer stuck in a dead-end job, blurted out that he was “done”—with her; with the Park Slope, Brooklyn, townhouse they had recently bought; and, most heartbreakingly, with their plans for the future including their nine-month-old son, Zack—Morrison was floored. While signs of Chris’s growing emotional distance had been there, Morrison admits she was too distracted and eager to create a happy family to heed. Chris left to find himself, while Morrison got stuck cleaning up the mess, blaming herself for her unlovableness and going to astounding reaches to accommodate the wayward husband. However, the author is made of steely stuff, the product of a Southern controlling mother, and well versed in telling other women how to lead and love their lives through the many magazines she has directed. She buried her anger, found tremendous peace in self-direction, and presents her triumphant redefinition in fine form for editorial fodder. (Mar.)

1 We Begin at the End 1

2 A Partnership Is Not Really a Partnership 8

3 You Don't Get to Know Why, But Ask Anyway 31

4 You Can Handle More Than You Think (But a Little Denial Helps) 65

5 Anger Hides Everything You Need to Feel to Get Past the Anger 106

6 You Are Not Alone, and, Yes, You Are Totally Alone 127

7 Your Child Knows More About Life Than You Do (Think Small) 146

8 Grief Is Not a Mountain, It Is a River 160

9 When You Accept That You Can't Be Safe, You Can Be Safe 186

10 The Answer Is a Riddle 219

11 The End Is the Beginning 235