"An amazingly moving and emotional story that any woman or any parent can easily relate to."
Jennifer Hamilton, Editor, Canadian Family magazine
Expecting Sunshine is a multi-award-winning memoir and a Kirkus Review BEST INDIE BOOK of 2017
Anyone who has experienced-or knows someone who has experienced-miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, stillbirth, or other forms of pregnancy and baby loss should read Expecting Sunshine, including those considering or already pregnant again.
After her son, Zachary, dies in her arms at birth, visual artist and author Alexis Marie Chute disappears into her "Year of Distraction." She cannot paint or write or tap into the heart of who she used to be, mourning not only for Zachary, but also for the future they might have had together. It is only when Chute learns she is pregnant again that she sets out to find healing and rediscover her identity-just in time, she hopes, to welcome her next child.
In the forty weeks of her pregnancy, Chute grapples with her strained marriage, shaken faith, and medical diagnosis, with profound results.
Glowing with riveting and gorgeous prose, Expecting Sunshine chronicles the anticipation and anxiety of expecting a baby while still grieving for the child that came before-enveloping readers with insightful observations on grief and healing, life and death, and the incredible power of a mother's love.
Letter from a reader:
I just finished your beautiful book Expecting Sunshine and felt compelled to reach out and say thank you.
A few days after I found out I miscarried, a few days before my D&C, I went to Barnes & Noble in hopes of finding a guidebook or self-help book of how to heal and cope with miscarriage or loss of a child. I searched every feasible location: self-help, psychology, family planning, childcare.
With tears in my eyes I was too embarrassed to ask anyone at the counter for help. There I was already utterly heartbroken and feeling more alone than ever. Not a single book for me to turn to. I pulled out my phone, googled "books about miscarriage" and found your book and ordered it on the spot.
It must not have been easy for you and your family to share your story, but I hope you know what an impact you've had on me and likely so many other women.
You've given me so much hope for my year ahead.
-Katie Rhodes, Oakland, California
www.ExpectingSunshine.com
Industry Reviews
2019 Eric Hoffer Award Finalist in The da Vinci Eye
2018 Body Mind Spirit Book Awards: Winner, Death & Dying category
2018 eLit Book Awards: Bronze, Parenting category
2018 Nautilus Book Awards: Silver, Parenting & Family category
2018 IBPA Ben Franklin Awards Finalist in Best New Voices: Non-Fiction
2018 IBPA Ben Franklin Awards Finalist in Autobiography & Memoir
2018 Reader Views Literary Awards Finalist in Parenting/Family/Relationships
2018 Finalist, da Vinci Eye Award, Eric Hoffer Book Award
2017 IndieReader Discovery Awards: Women's Issues, First Place
2017 Royal Dragonfly Book Award Winner in Women's Interests
2017 Canada Book Award Winner
2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Winner, Best Cover Design, nonfiction
2017 USA Best Book Awards Finalist in Women's Issues
2017 USA Best Book Awards Finalist in Best New Non-Fiction
2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards Finalist in Parenting/Family Non-Fiction
2017 Foreword Indies Finalist in Adult Nonfiction-Grief & Grieving
IndieReader BEST INDIE BOOKS of 2017 pick
Kirkus Review BEST INDIE BOOKS of 2017
Best Indie Book sof 2017 Top 10
"Expecting Sunshine is an invaluable resource for those dealing with loss, as well as a beautifully-told story of grief, hope, healing and love."
-IndieReader
"A moving saga of motherhood in extremis that earns its moments of certainty and bliss through an honest grappling with pain and doubt."
-Kirkus
"Exquisitely detailed and achingly honest. A must-read."
-Ariel Brewster, senior editor, Today's Parent Magazine
"Alexis Marie Chute, tasked with living as she mourns the death of her child, writes vividly and honestly about loss and grief. Expecting Sunshine records a journey that proves to be revelatory for reader and writer alike. This is a brave, memorable book."
-Jane Brox, author of Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light
"This memoir is a moving journey of infant loss and the pregnancy that follows in the midst of a society that does not understand the dynamics of perinatal loss. The book explores the different ways men and women process grief, suppressing grief while wanting others to remember a baby no longer physically present, and how to find a new normal. The pregnancy that follows brings multifaceted feelings of continued grief, memories of the previous pregnancy along with anxiety and fear for the safety of the much-wanted new sibling. This is a book for parents, professionals, and families and friends wishing to support someone who has suffered a loss."
-Joann O'Leary, PhD, Parent-Infant Specialist, author of Meeting the Needs of Families Pregnant and Parenting After the Loss of a Baby
"Honest, raw and vulnerable-Alexis Marie Chute opens her heart to share her journey of love, loss, transformation, and rebirth. Her message that love binds us together even beyond death, resonates deeply with me as a bereaved mother; it is also a consistent message I heard in my research with bereaved families who experience perinatal death. This is an important, engaging book for bereaved parents, especially those who are considering a subsequent pregnancy."
-Christine Jonas-Simpson, RN, PhD Professor of Nursing, York University, Toronto, ON Canada
"Alexis Marie's honest, unflinching memoir reads more like a novel in its elegant use of prose and narrative structure. But there's no mistaking its truth-that losing a child at any age can cause a shift in a parent's universe. Alexis Marie's struggle to move forward and heal, and still honour baby Zachary, is an inspiration."
-Janice Biehn, Editor, ParentsCanada magazine
"In Expecting Sunshine, the Edmonton-based writer and artist Alexis Marie Chute writes about loss-the most primal loss we can experience, the loss of a child-in such luminous prose and with such clear-e
