Journey Beyond Despair cover art

Journey Beyond Despair

A Memoir of Love, Psychosis, and the Power of Insight

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Journey Beyond Despair

By: Julie Howard Parker
Narrated by: Julie Howard Parker
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £14.99

Buy Now for £14.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

A true story of two lovers pitted against a deadly enemy, Journey Beyond despair introduces Julie, the quixotic author, whose conflict between airy ideals and earthly reality results in mental illness.

Listeners meet the fated couple in 1960 as Peter delivers his terrified wife to a Chicago psychiatric hospital, then returns home to pick up the pieces with three tiny daughters. Julie descends into the abyss of psychosis, but after slowly recovering with Peter's support, she launches a 40-year quest to outwit patterns that block intimacy and partnering with the man she loves.

Each escapade ends in relapse, leading at last to despair. But at the defining moment, Julie's insight and Peter's selflessness combine to spark a stunning twist neither foresees. Together, the two "crack the code" of mental illness, showing its healing potential and lifting Julie's search for meaning to the realm of mythic/heroic journey.

Julie, 93, and Peter Parker, 94, among America's oldest married couples, offer a startling new voice of hope to sufferers and their families, asking, can mental illness be a gift to a relationship?

©2025 Julie Howard Parker (P)2025 Julie Howard Parker
Marriage & Long-Term Partnerships Mental Health Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships Marriage Memoir Inspiring
No reviews yet