“In her latest memoir, Nita Sweeney leans in close to show the reality of a difficult year. Then, she drops us all the way in. Whether in a golf cart, the psych ward, or at the edge of her dying father’s bed, when everything in her wants to flee, she stays in the room. With MEMORIAL, Nita has done the real work, creating a book that will echo with you long after you close the cover.”
—Natalie Goldberg, bestselling author of Writing Down the Bones and Writing on Empty

“As someone who has spent most of his adult life speaking publicly about mental illness, I know how rare it is for a person to tell the whole story without making themselves sound better—in other words, without sanding down the rough edges. In MEMORIAL, Nita Sweeney doesn’t sugarcoat the mental health struggles she faces. It’s a heartbreaking (yet sometimes comical) story that is brutally honest about suicidal ideation, grief, love, and what it actually takes to keep going. I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone.”
—Gabe Howard, Webby award-winning podcaster and author of Mental Illness Is an Asshole and Other Observations

“Nita Sweeney has produced a glorious memoir that will touch you deeply and resonate for many years after its last page. Her account of placing life on hold to share her dying father’s final days reminds all of us about the obligations to being a son or daughter and giving up the pointless habit of keeping score in life, choosing instead to share love in the heart of grief and loss.”
—James Dodson, award-winning author of Final Rounds and The Road That Made America

“Nita Sweeney’s MEMORIAL is an emotional tribute to the power of sports in forging unbreakable bonds. Using the metaphor of golf’s rhythms—the approach, the front and back nines, the greens—she recounts the tender but tumultuous year spent with her dying father, transforming fairways into pathways of reconciliation and unconditional love. This is a must-read for anyone who has found solace and strength, nine to eighteen holes at a time.”
—Leif H. Smith, Psy.D, Clinical & Sports Psychologist and author of Sports Psychology for Dummies

“MEMORIAL is more than an inspiring and hopeful memoir about fathers and daughters, healing familial relationships, or recovering from mental illness. It’s also about golf! And it’s a darned good read! Highly recommended for anyone who’s ever been a child, a parent, or ever got too caught up in keeping score.”
—Sean Murphy, recent National Endowment for the Arts Fellow in Creative Writing, award-winning author of The Time of New Weather

“Nita Sweeney’s new memoir, MEMORIAL, is a fitting tribute to her father while showing his significance in her life. The touching, funny, poignant, and honest book effectively weaves different timelines with many vivid scenes on and off the golf course. It would make a terrific movie!”
—James Kingsland, author of Am I Dreaming? and Siddhartha’s Brain

“MEMORIAL is a touching exploration of the mind and heart. Over a series of golf dates with her dying father, Nita Sweeney eloquently captures the complexities around their relationship, her struggles with depression and her coming to terms with her own life—as a reflection of her father’s. Just as with her award-winning Depression Hates a Moving Target, Sweeney holds nothing back as she shines a light on mental illness, self-destruction, and grief, all in a way that compels our compassion. A gift for anyone who’s navigated difficult family relationships.”
—Debbie Russell, award-winning author of Crossing Fifty-One: Not Quite a Memoir

“In MEMORIAL, Nita Sweeney details her journey with her father after his terminal cancer diagnosis, as she attempts to draw closer to him, resolve their differences, and come to terms with his approaching death by bonding with him on the golf course. Her reflections also tackle her history of anxiety and depression, including struggles with suicidal ideation and psychiatric hospitalization, against the backdrop of a woman who feels she’s never measured up to her father’s expectations. Sweeney’s prose is straightforward and to the point, sharing her vulnerable emotions as she examines how her father’s sickness impacts her own self-image as well as her future. The memoir offers interesting parallels between Sweeney’s battle with mental illness and her father’s terminal cancer, offering up insights on the pair’s similarities (both often fall back on critical self-talk and tend to check out of uncomfortable conversations) and differences. Sweeney’s depression is intensely rendered, sweeping readers into her emotions and thought processes, and her inner monologues when spending time with her father—reflecting on her insecurities, fear of losing him, and frustration that nothing can be done to save him—will strike a chord with readers.”
—Publisher’s Weekly BookLife Prize Critic