Rise Above
A Memoir
Failed to add items
Sorry, we are unable to add the item because your shopping cart is already at capacity.
Add to basket failed.
Please try again later
Add to wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Remove from wishlist failed.
Please try again later
Adding to library failed
Please try again
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Unlimited access to our all-you-can-listen catalogue of 15K+ audiobooks and podcasts
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.
Rise Above
Narrated by:
Bill Callahan
Pre-order Now for £11.66
-
Narrated by:
-
Bill Callahan
About this listen
Renzo Rollins Schnipper was born in February 2020, a split second before the beginning of the pandemic. To his parents, he was the reason for the universe’s existence at a time when there was little hope to be found in the world. Then, on Christmas Eve 2021, a rare medical event suddenly took Renzo from them. Rise Above begins with an account of Renzo’s short, but blazingly full, life from his father’s perspective. Even as it is an account of grief, Matthew Schnipper’s memoir is about resilience in the face of the unexpected turns life takes, and how to chart a path forward.
Schnipper chronicles the tragic, frustrating, and sometimes dumb ways that grief manifests, and how he tried to rise above the pain: friendships, text messages, carbs, a trip to Miami, phone calls with a rabbi, selling vintage clothing—and, perhaps most indelibly, his ever-changing relationship to music, his lifelong passion.
Rise Above follows this journey—from the shock and freefall following his son’s death, to the desperate struggle to remember and honor Renzo’s life. Schnipper’s candid prose and clear-eyed storytelling tackles the darkest, most unfathomable elements of living, but also the miracle of love and the shimmering moments that ultimately give life meaning.
Critic reviews
“This is a story that nobody should ever have to tell, yet Matthew Schnipper does so with grace, rawness, and beauty.”—Hua Hsu, Pulitzer Prize winning and New York Times bestselling author of Stay True
“In Rise Above, Matthew Schnipper faces the unanswerable question of how to live in the aftermath of impossible grief. It is a sensitive, moving memoir, an exquisite portrait of a beloved child, and a testament to the relationships that sustain and bolster us in times of need.”—Yaa Gyasi, NBCC Award-winning and bestselling author of Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom
“So much writing about grief feels gauzy, platitudinous, simple. But Matthew Schnipper recounts the contours of his seismic loss with such a staggering amount of tenderness and honesty. I’m astounded by his capacity for love and earnest self-reflection in the face of bottomless pain; this book is a serious gift for anyone feeling unmoored and alone.”—Amanda Petrusich, author of Do Not Sell at Any Price
“In Rise Above, Matthew Schnipper faces the unanswerable question of how to live in the aftermath of impossible grief. It is a sensitive, moving memoir, an exquisite portrait of a beloved child, and a testament to the relationships that sustain and bolster us in times of need.”—Yaa Gyasi, NBCC Award-winning and bestselling author of Homegoing and Transcendent Kingdom
“So much writing about grief feels gauzy, platitudinous, simple. But Matthew Schnipper recounts the contours of his seismic loss with such a staggering amount of tenderness and honesty. I’m astounded by his capacity for love and earnest self-reflection in the face of bottomless pain; this book is a serious gift for anyone feeling unmoored and alone.”—Amanda Petrusich, author of Do Not Sell at Any Price
No reviews yet