Sign-In
Cart
Fragments Of A Distant Heart
Paperback
Biographies GeneralDeath & Dying
Publisher: Emily Lepage
Published: Sep 19 2025
Pages: 246
Weight: 0.74
Height: 0.52 Width: 6.00 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
What do you do when half of you is gone? This is the story of love, loss, and learning to live after losing my twin.
Addiction took my brother. Grief almost took me. This book is how I found a way through both. When my twin brother, Chris, died from an overdose, the world as I knew it stopped. From the very beginning, we were inseparable, two halves of the same heartbeat. We shared summers filled with laughter, classrooms and hallways where we grew up side by side, and the unspoken bond only twins understand. Yet beneath the smiles, Chris carried struggles that neither of us fully understood, battled with belonging and identity that slowly pulled him into addiction.
This book is both a love letter and a lament. It is a collection of memories, some sweet, some haunting, woven together with the raw truth of what it feels like to lose someone who was not just your brother, but your mirror. From the innocence of childhood, to the awkward search for acceptance in our teenage years, to the devastating night everything fell apart, these pages trace the journey of two lives that were meant to walk together, and the breaking point when one was forced to continue alone.
But this is not only a story about death; it is a story about what comes after. About navigating the silence he left behind, the anger and the questions that never end, the unbearable ache of missing someone who should still be here. It is also about the unexpected ways grief transforms you, teaching you to breathe when you don't want to, to lean into gratitude when life feels unfair, and to discover strength you never knew you had.
At its core, this book is about love, the kind of love that survives even the greatest loss. A love that refuses to fade, that keeps showing up in memories, in small signs, in the way those we've lost remain woven into us.
I never set out to write a book. What I set out to do was survive. After Chris died, the grief was suffocating, and I didn't know what to do with all the pain, the memories, and the words I never got to say. Writing became my way of holding on to him, of keeping his story alive, and of making sense of my own.
I wrote this book because addiction doesn't just happen in statistics or headlines, it happens to families, to brothers and sisters, to people we love with all our hearts. I wanted to put a face, a name, and a story to that reality. Chris was so much more than his struggles. He was funny, caring, stubborn, protective, and deeply loved. He mattered. And I refuse to let the world forget that.
I also wrote this for anyone who has experienced grief and feels like no one understands. Grief is lonely, but you don't have to walk through it alone. If sharing my story gives even one person comfort, courage, or the reminder that their loved one's life still has meaning, then every painful word I've written is worth it.
This book is for Chris. And it's for you.
Also in
Biographies General
Bluesland: Portraits of Thirteen Major American Blues Masters
Pete Welding (ED.)
Toby Byron (ED.)
Hardcover
Karl Popper - The Formative Years, 1902 1945: Politics and Philosophy in Interwar Vienna
Hacohen, Malachi Haim
Hardcover
The Children of Athena: Greek Intellectuals in the Age of Rome: 150 Bc0-400 AD
Freeman, Charles
Hardcover
Make It a Double: From Wretched to Wondrous: Tales of One Woman's Lifelong Discovery of Whisky
Sackier, Shelley
Hardcover
The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race
Isaacson, Walter
Hardcover
An Enemy Such as This: Larry Casuse and the Fight for Native Liberation in One Family on Two Continents Over Three Centuries
Correia, David
Hardcover
Agents of Chaos: Thomas King Forçade, High Times, and the Paranoid End of the 1970s
Howe, Sean
Hardcover
Better Living Through Birding: Notes from a Black Man in the Natural World
Cooper, Christian
Hardcover
The Secret Life of the Savoy: Glamour and Intrigue at the World's Most Famous Hotel
Williams, Olivia
Paperback
The Badger: The Life of Bernard Hinault and the Legacy of French Cycling
Fotheringham, William
Paperback
The Devil's Diary: Alfred Rosenberg and the Stolen Secrets of the Third Reich
Wittman, Robert K.
Kinney, David
Paperback
Florence Kelley and the Nation's Work: The Rise of Womens Political Culture, 1830-1900
Sklar, Kathryn Kish
Paperback
A Woman of No Importance: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II
Purnell, Sonia
Hardcover
Living with a Wild God: A Nonbeliever's Search for the Truth about Everything
Ehrenreich, Barbara
Paperback
Seafaring Women: Adventures of Pirate Queens, Female Stowaways, and Sailors' Wives
Cordingly, David
Paperback
The Butcher, the Embezzler, and the Fall Guy: A Family Memoir of Scandal and Greed in the Meat Industry
Cherington, Gretchen
Paperback
Gift of Power: The Life and Teachings of a Lakota Medicine Man
Erdoes, Richard
Lame Deer, Chief Archie Fire
Paperback
My Own Devices: True Stories from the Road on Music, Science, and Senseless Love
Dessa Wander
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
How to Be Okay When Nothing Is Okay: Tips and Tricks That Kept Me Alive, Happy, and Creative in Spite of Myself
Lawson, Jenny
Hardcover
Family of Spies: A World War II Story of Nazi Espionage, Betrayal, and the Secret History Behind Pearl Harbor
Kuehn, Christine
Hardcover
Dangerous, Dirty, Violent, and Young: A Fugitive Family in the Revolutionary Underground
Dohrn, Zayd Ayers
Hardcover
A Walk in the Park: The True Story of a Spectacular Misadventure in the Grand Canyon
Fedarko, Kevin
Paperback
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover