Shades of Light - by Sharon Garlough Brown (Paperback)

About the Book

Wren Crawford is a social worker whose struggles with anxiety and depression are starting to overcome her. She finds solace in art and spiritual formation along with traditional therapeutic interventions, but a relationship from her past threatens to undo her progress. As Wren seeks healing in this beautifully written novel, readers are invited to move beyond pat answers into an experience of hope that illuminates the darkness.

Book Synopsis

Wren Crawford is a social worker whose struggles with anxiety and depression are starting to overcome her. She finds solace in art and spiritual formation along with traditional therapeutic interventions, but a relationship from her past threatens to undo her progress. As Wren seeks healing in this beautifully written novel, readers are invited to move beyond pat answers into an experience of hope that illuminates the darkness.

Review Quotes

"Brown's evocative prose . . . is both heartbreaking and enthralling. This emotionally harrowing story will appeal to fans of Karen Kingsbury."

"Christians have not done well with the subject of mental illness. There is a great deal of stigma around the therapy process, calling people's struggles 'a lack of faith' or 'sin in their life.' This marvelous book courageously unveils the reality of psychological struggle even among people of faith, pointing us to the Jesus who keeps company with us in everything that is hard-a companion in sorrow. Thank you, Sharon, for this work that I predict will be healing to many."

"In Shades of Light, Sharon Garlough Brown draws us once again into stories of faith amid suffering and hope even in the darkness. Christians face mental illness like everyone else, but too often they wrestle alone and ashamed. As we enter Wren's world of anxiety and depression, we are invited to join her muse Vincent van Gogh and the characters from the Sensible Shoes series as her 'companions in sorrow.' Sharon's unflinching and compassionate portrayal of that sacred fellowship reveals Christ himself is with us on the journey, sharing our tears and holding us in love."

"Look for cameos by some of your favorite characters from the Sensible Shoes series in this quiet, honest story about the hallowing of the soul in its journey with Jesus through suffering. For anyone who has faced the darkness of depression or walked that road with a loved one, this is a beautiful, much-needed Christian vision of mental illness as both clinical (therefore treatable) and spiritual."

"Shades of Light is a beautiful, moving story filled with Sharon Garlough Brown's deep, spiritual insights. As a fan of artist Vincent van Gogh, I loved how the main characters, Wren and her mother, Jamie, drew from the faith of this 'companion in sorrow' as they faced the challenges of Wren's depression. Brown offers no pat answers to the questions raised by mental illness, but shows how joy and suffering are held in delicate balance through faith in the 'Man of Sorrows, ' who is 'sorrowful but always rejoicing.' This is a powerful book, triumphant with hope."

"Sharon Garlough Brown uses the vulnerable, sensitive, compassionate, and creative character of Wren to sympathetically immerse the reader into her valiant struggles of coping with depression and anxiety. With Wren's deep insights into the life of Vincent van Gogh, we are invited to participate in the illuminating potential of visio divina to experience the comforting aspects of Vincent's art. Sharon succeeds in revealing what hides beneath the surface of the two wounded and kindred spirits-Wren and Vincent-namely, their compassion and their spiritual and intellectual depth. This is a book that compels us to be more compassionate and less judgmental."

"Sharon Garlough Brown's Shades of Light is a rare and beautiful study in contrasts. Faith and doubt, control and surrender, acceptance and resistance-all are woven into the darks and lights of a story so real and provoking that you will find yourself aching, wondering, hoping, and even praying alongside her luminescent characters. The struggles of depression and anxiety, of parenting and being parented, of loving and losing aren't tied up in easy answers or simple narratives, but are lifted up for what they are: the beloved brokenness where God's light and love get in."

"This novel skillfully tackles the dark topics of depression and suicide as well as the often misguided way Christians treat mental illness. It asks the hard questions such as how one should support a loved one who deals with this disease and what to do when our best intentions are ineffective in providing help and solace. Beautiful and haunting, Shades of Light is a heart-wrenching and necessary read that ultimately offers hope."

"What a consolation this novel will be for those who have known the darkness! Too often church people approach mental illness with fear, simplistic theology, and useless spiritual bromides. By telling Wren's story, Sharon Garlough Brown instead gently welcomes us into a companionship of sorrow where we can glimpse the dark beauties of grace. There's bracing truth here about the stubbornness of mental illness, the spiritual and practical implications, the helpless ache of those who love but can't fix. But there's also beauty of soul, which emerges for readers through Wren's sensitive dwelling in the paintings and writings of Vincent van Gogh. And as we learn to dwell in Wren's world, to enter that circle of sorrow, we find at the center of it the compassionate, Gethsemane presence of Christ."

About the Author

Sharon Garlough Brown is a spiritual director, speaker, and cofounder of Abiding Way Ministries, providing spiritual formation retreats and resources. She is the author of the bestselling Sensible Shoes Series, which includes spiritual fiction novels Sensible Shoes, Two Steps Forward, Barefoot, An Extra Mile, and their study guides. A graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, Sharon has served on the pastoral staff of congregations in Scotland, Oklahoma, England, and most recently in West Michigan, where she copastored with her husband, Jack, for many years.