Tim Murphy – författare

In this vivid and compelling novel, Tim Murphy follows a diverse set of characters whose fates intertwine in an iconic building in Manhattan’s East Village, the Christodora. The Christodora is home to Milly and Jared, a privileged young couple with artistic ambitions. Their neighbor, Hector, a Puerto Rican gay man who was once a celebrated AIDS activist but is now a lonely addict, becomes connected to Milly and Jared’s lives in ways none of them can anticipate. Meanwhile, Milly and Jared’s adopted son Mateo grows to see the opportunity for both self-realization and oblivion that New York offers.

As the junkies and protesters of the 1980s give way to the hipsters of the 2000s and they, in turn, to the wealthy residents of the crowded, glass-towered city of the 2020s, enormous changes rock the personal lives of Milly and Jared and the constellation of people around them.

Moving kaleidoscopically from the Tompkins Square Riots and attempts by activists to galvanize a true response to the AIDS epidemic, to the New York City of the future, Christodora recounts the heartbreak wrought by AIDS, illustrates the allure and destructive power of hard drugs, and brings to life the ever-changing city itself.

A HANDBOOK FOR THE BROKEN

A valuable guide for anyone dealing with PTSD, trauma and tragedy, family members of trauma victims, clergy who seek a better understanding of psychology, and for counselors who seek a better understanding of the role of faith in healing from trauma.

THE CHRIST CURE is comprehensive handbook of healing for victims of trauma and their families, guiding the reader through a unique path of true restoration, inspired by the life and works of the Apostle Paul (a survivor of multiple traumas), by modern day mentors, the humbling personal experiences of the author, Psychologist, Navy veteran and former Member of Congress Dr. Tim Murphy, and reinforced by solid scientific research.

Dr. Murphy’s book is a faith foundation guide for healing the psychological problems in the wake of trauma. Awakened by his own failures, the author grasped for ways out of his deep depression and re-discovered inspiration in the life and works of the Apostle Paul, who himself lived a life filled with major traumatic experiences. It offers new insights into how life threatening abuse, chronic stress and self-inflicted trauma affects us physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually, and most importantly, how we can heal.

In the book, Dr. Murphy candidly describes his own fall from grace, his battle with depression and his humble confession that while he was trying to save the world he was losing his own soul; disconnecting from his faith and family. He walks the reader through his return to the Bible and his discovery of a great mentor for healing from trauma—the Apostle Paul.

Paul the Apostle suffered several dozen severe traumas including whippings, stoning, shipwrecks, trials, imprisonment, abandonment, and a looming death sentence. Modern psychological research suggests any one of these traumas should have been emotionally crippling for him. Instead, Paul grew stronger and more courageous. 

Unique to this book is the foundation of biblical pillars for healthy treatment of trauma all supported by research and scripture including fitness, sleep, healthy eating, healthy relaxation, resilience, resistance, recovery, and renewal. Within each stage the reader is challenged to choose between sets of dichotomies, one leading to healing, while the other worsens our problems. Throughout, the reader is empowered through their own suffering to become stronger in their relationships and faith: 

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) effects tens of millions with symptoms of depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, broken relationships, isolation, and suicidal thoughts. Current treatment approaches include counseling and medication, but this often leaves many still struggling in darkness for years. Here, readers are guided on a very different path lit by a beacon of faith. 

THE CHRIST CURE: 10 Biblical Ways to Heal Your Mind from Trauma, Tragedy, and PTSD provides much-need help and guidance to “the broken” from secular to scriptural; illustrated with inspirational stories of those who are winning their own battles.

The world is Rita Khoury’s oyster. The bright and driven daughter of a Boston-area Irish Arab family that has risen over the generations from poor immigrants to part of the coastal elite, Rita grows up in a 1980s cultural mishmash. Corned beef and cabbage sit on the dinner table alongside stuffed grape leaves and tabouleh, all cooked by Rita’s mother, an Irish nurse who met her Lebanese surgeon husband while working at a hospital together. The unconventional yet close-knit family bonds over summers at the beach, wedding line dances, and a shared obsession with the Red Sox.

Rita charts herself an ambitious path through Harvard to one of the best newspapers in the country. She is posted in cosmopolitan Beirut and dates a handsome Palestinian would-be activist. But when she is assigned to cover the America-led invasion of Baghdad in 2003, she finds herself unprepared for the war zone. Her lifeline is her interpreter and fixer Nabil al-Jumaili, an equally restless young man whose dreams have been restricted by life in a deteriorating dictatorship, not to mention his own seemingly impossible desires. As the war tears Iraq apart, personal betrayal and the horrors of conflict force Rita and Nabil out of the country and into twisting, uncertain fates. What lies in wait will upend their lives forever, shattering their own notions of what they are entitled to in a grossly unjust world.

Epic in scope, by turns satirical and heartbreaking, and speaking sharply to America’s current moment, Correspondents is a whirlwind story about displacement from one’s own roots, the violence America promotes both abroad and at home, and the resilience that allows families to remake themselves and endure even the most shocking upheavals.