Rise Above

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An unforgettable memoir of fatherhood, grief, and the life-saving power of love and art in the wake of unimaginable loss “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 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