Wrestling With the Angel

This is one of the most innovative and original books I have read on the subject of death and dying, one that will both stimulate and challenge the reader with compelling insights and perceptive understanding---an invaluable contribution. Rabbi Earl A. Grollman, D.H.L., D.D. Author, Living When a Loved One Has Died

Kent Koppelman addresses coming to terms with tragic loss and offers much good information with his own inimitable style of humor and poetic license, with beautiful poetry and prose and deep philosophic insight into tragedy and courage. It is a highly useful work, to be read again and again. If you purchase this book, it will be one that becomes well crumpled---as all good books are! Whatever you take from this book, some piece of it will be meaningful. For me, reading it has been meaningful both personally and professionally. Daniel Rudofossi, Psy. D., Ph.D., New York University Author, A Cop Doc's Guide to Public Safety Complex Trauma Syndrome

Wrestling with the Angel is a major addition to the classic works in dying, death, and grief. For those with a love of literature, this marvelous work includes not only prose, but poetry, a short story, and a wonderful play. In warm and simple language, Kent Koppelman addresses issues faced by men in grieving the loss of a child, in a uniquely masculine approach to this topic. Unlike most grief and bereavement works, this book addresses male issues, in a humorous yet thoughtful and compassionate way that offers men the strength and direction they need to survive with tremendous loss. Women will also enjoy this marvelous book and its insights into the special nature of a father's grief and response to grief. Dr. Gerry R. Cox, Emeritus Professor of Sociology Center for Death Education & Bioethics University of Wisconsin-La Crosse

Kent Koppelman graduated from the University of Nebraska, taught high school English and social studies, then earned his Ph.D. from Iowa State University. He accepted a position at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, where for 28 years he taught courses in the School of Education. In 1988, Wisconsin's Department of Public Instruction selected him as Teacher Educator of the Year.

This achievement was followed by a family tragedy in 1989, when his son, Jason, was killed in a car accident. Dr. Koppelman described his experience with loss and grief in his first book, The Fall of a Sparrow: Of Death and Dreams and Healing (1994). His second book, Values in the Key of Life: Making Harmony in the Human Community (2001) consists of essays on the need to choose between conflicting values and the implications of such choices in everyday life. He has published two books on diversity issues.

Dr. Koppelman retired in May 2007, and in the fall of that year, the College of Human Sciences at Iowa State University presented him with the Virgil S. Lagomarcino Laureate Award to honor his "distinguished achievement in the field of education." He and his wife, Jan, have been married for 40 years, and their daughter, Tess, is a broadcast journalist in Kansas City.