Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Delta; Reprint edition
Price: $10.69
Purchase: Amazon

Description

“This is the story of an extraordinary boy with a brilliant mind, a heart of gold, and a tortured soul. It is the story of an illness, a fight to live, and a race against death.

I want to share the story, and the pain, the courage, the love, and what I learned in living through it. I want Nick’s life to be not only a tender memory for us, but a gift to others. . . . I would like to offer people hope and the realities we lived with. I want to make a difference. My hope is that someone will be able to use what we learned, and save a life with it.”—Danielle Steel

From the day he was born, Nick Traina was his mother’s joy. By nineteen, he was dead. This is Danielle Steel’s powerful, personal story of the son she lost and the lessons she learned during his courageous battle against darkness. Sharing tender, painful memories and Nick’s remarkable journals, Steel brings us a haunting duet between a singular young man and the mother who loved him—and a harrowing portrait of a masked killer called manic depression, which afflicts between two and three million Americans.

At once a loving legacy and an unsparing depiction of a devastating illness, Danielle Steel’s tribute to her lost son is a gift of life, hope, healing, and understanding to us all.

***Vlog Review: https://youtu.be/YC8qgK_JpQQ***

Review

His Bright Light was written as a tribute to Danielle Steel’s son, Nick Traina who was born with bi-polar disorder and committed suicide at the age of nineteen.

This is a well written, detailed account chronicling his life and everything he/she went through trying to get help within the medical community. The failures and the successes, the ups and downs, the sadness and the joy.

It was heart wrenching and difficult for me to read. I had to put it book down a couple of times, because I felt bad for Nick and all he suffered, as well as Danielle Steel and her family.

Mental illness is real and it not only effects the person who is suffering from it, but it also impacts everyone else around them.

At that time, there wasn’t as much information regarding treating bi-polar disorder, (otherwise known as manic depression) as there is now. Although I’m grateful to see there have been strides in the medical field, there is still more to be uncovered and revealed regarding brain disorders.

I get into more detail about my thoughts in my vlog review.

If you want to learn more about what bi-polar looks like, I highly recommend His Bright Light. 

Danielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with over 650 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include Dangerous Games, The Mistress, The Award, Rushing Waters, Magic, The Apartment, Property of a Noblewoman, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death; A Gift of Hope, a memoir of her work with the homeless; Pure Joy, about the dogs she and her family have loved; and the children’s books Pretty Minnie in Paris and Pretty Minnie in Hollywood.