When Maureen and Steve met in their twenties, he'd left behind a difficult marriage and she had ended a troubled relationship. In each other, they found a passionate love and shared a dream of a living off the land in rural Michigan. Three years later, when Steve, at twenty-nine, was diagnosed with cancer, they embarked on an all-out effort to save his life. When Steve's childhood friend, Joey, a drug addict, learned that Steve needed money for experimental cancer treatments that insurance wouldn't cover, he offered to sell Steve's pain medication, a synthetic opioid with a high street value, to help pay the costs; only one of the friends would survive. The Murmur of Everything Moving chronicles a young, working-class couple's odyssey through the medical mileu, as they navigate the terrain of illness and caregiving, of compassion and loss. This beautiful and aching memoir is ultimately a story of love―romantic, brotherly, and spiritual―in all its challenging but exquisite complexities. Like all great memoirs, The Murmur of Everything Moving , plumbs far deeper than its immediate subject, in this case the act of caring for and tending to one's dying lover; with spare, lyrical, and wonderfully evocative prose, Maureen Stanton lays bare here the myriad forms of love required of us when things get hard. This viscerally moving memoir is a love song and a tribute, a hymn of praise for each sacred moment given us. It is also heartbreakingly beautiful, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. ~ Andre Dubus III, author of Ghost Dogs, Such Kindness, Gone So Long, House of Sand and Fog , and the memoir Townie , among other books. The Murmur of Everything Moving is a rare love story. Tender, incredibly wise, surprisingly funny, fizzing with youthful desire and impressive courage, this riveting memoir of a twenty-something couple facing mortality far too young is indelible. A story of love as ardent obligation, and of one couple's efforts to defy the odds, this book will change you, for the better. ~ E.J. Levy, author of the NYT Editor's Choice novel, The Cape Doctor , Lambda-winning Tasting Life Twic e, and the Flannery O'Connor award-winning story collection, Love, in Theory. Publisher's Weekly Book Life Editor's Pick -- "A stunning true romance.This is a tender, clever, and deeply engaging love story." - Kirkus Reviews - " Stanton is a skilled author whose prose sparkles with literary panache. She deftly connects her story to universal experiences, from the first stages of infatuation and passionate love to the excruciating pain and confusion that accompanies th e death of a partner. A poignant, evocative story of love, death, and survival." - Readers' Favorites Reviews: 5-stars. "This memoir brilliantly captures the journey, the highs and lows, the commitment to be present, and the love that defies pain...thanks to Maureen Stanton's gift for storytelling . A well-written memoir that examines the anatomy of pain and sorrow in an achingly beautiful way." - Winner of the Donald L. Jordan Prize for Literary Excellence - Winner of the Sewanee Review nonfiction prize - Excerpt published in The New York Times "Modern Love" column Beguiling, vivid, and rich with loving devotion, The Murmur of Everything Moving is a beautiful, heart-breaking memoir. The writing is precise and excellent--there are certain lines so good you want to write them down so you don't forget. There is sorrow, portrayed without fear, and there is love exercised like a powerful muscle It' a wonder to behold, and so is this book. ~ Stephen Kiernan, judge, Donald L. Jordan Prize for Literary Excellence, author of The Glass Chateau, Universe of Two, The Baker's Secret and other novels. What I loved most about this [excerpt of The Murmur of Everything Moving ] was the way it moved along the ame storm systems of high agony and the quiet routine of daily despair--just like the terrible diagnosis it describes. It is moving and torturous without being cloying or sentimental. The ending is simple and spare and poignant and made my mouth go dry." ~ Lisa Taddeo, judge, Sewanee Review nonfiction contest, author of the NYT best-seller, Three Women , and the novels Animal and Ghost Lover A memoir of love, loss, and longing Every book is a labor of love. The Murmur of Everything Moving is a labor of love about love. Maureen Stanton's memoir, The Murmur of Everything Moving , shares with readers the most sincere and bravest of love stories. Stanton brings us back to a fateful time in her twenties, when life was filled with aspirations and dreams, until her passionate relationship with Steve a hard-working electrician and recent divorcee, is intruded up by serious illness. From there we are led into a finely-wrought exploration of devotion and hope, leaving us to wonder who we are ourselves as family members and caregivers. MAUREEN STANTON is the author of Body Leaping Backward: Memoir of a Delinquent Girlhood ,