Hidden in Shadow

Janna Barber grew up as a pastor's kid, and by the time she finished high school she had lived in five states and twelve homes and attended seven different schools. The church culture around her taught her to push down the sorrow those upheavals caused. This memoir follows how that habit carried into adulthood, when marriage and motherhood left her sadder than she had ever been as a child. Depression, miscarriages, and persistent destructive thoughts marked those years.

Eventually Janna turned to writing, and later to therapy, to work through what she was feeling. Along the way she came to see that hope and joy depend on being willing to face sorrow and lament. Written with warmth and plenty of humor, the book invites readers to look honestly at their own grief and consider whether it might be transformed into something good.