The Place Between Our Pains
- Judith D Collins
- Dec 7
- 3 min read
A Memoir of What Joy Can Survive
ISBN: 9780593727393
Publisher: Convergent | Convergent Books
Publication Date: 05/19/2026
Format: Other
My Rating: TBR (ARC)
A poetic, darkly funny memoir of one woman’s trip across the national parks straight into life-threatening illness and the joy that still holds us, no matter how much life hurts.
After over a decade of fighting chronic illness, trauma therapist and beloved author K.J. Ramsey was the healthiest she’d been in her life. She packed up her Jeep and set out on a summer of road trips, returning to the places where she first glimpsed joy as a kid. More than adventure, her aim was a personal dare to discover that joy is more trustworthy than trauma.
The plan was simple but bold:
Drive. Write. Heal. What could go wrong?
It turns out, everything.
The woman who just wandered through Redwood forests and ran naked into the Pacific suddenly found herself in the hospital fighting to stay alive. A mysterious illness struck like lightning, splintering the best days of her life into the absolute scariest. Ramsey went from being afraid of dying to afraid of living the life she was left with—losing both her mobility and the language of her faith, medically gaslit, with no map out of her misery. Was joy actually a trick? Or was joy still possible—even in inescapable pain?
Told with unhinged humor, lyrical honesty, and zero patience for toxic positivity, The Place Between Our Pains is a true story that reaches past our expectations of what joy can survive. From banana slugs to bedpans, mushrooms to the Mayo Clinic, hospitals to holy rage, Ramsey invites us into the unlikely places where joy lives. Through a full year of recovery, she encounters love that doesn’t leave—even when life doesn’t get easier. This is a love letter to every life seared by pain or autoimmune disease and a fierce permission slip to show up in the stories we never would have written for ourselves.
Praise
“Unapologetically raw, defiantly humorous, this book is the bravest of journeys. From the beauty of the mountain-hemmed Utah salt flats to the terrors of a hospital bed, K.J. Ramsey invites us into her journal pages, her fears, her doubts, and her very body with a memoir that makes no promises except to tell the truth about joy in the dark. We’ve needed this.”
—Cole Arthur Riley, New York Times bestselling author of This Here Flesh
“This book is a beacon, guiding us into the wild and natural worlds we exist within: the ones outside all around and the ones inside that we embody. Ramsey reminds us that no matter how rugged, surprising, and full of mystery—it is our connection with them that invites us into a life full of beauty.”
—Hillary McBride, PhD, psychologist, author, podcast host
“This is a harrowing account of a woman who has contended with serious illness for most of her adult life. It is also a witness to the hope that arises even in misery. ‘We cannot heal our way out of being human,’ Ramsey writes, but she insists that love and joy can uplift us in the spaces between our pains.”
—Kathleen Norris, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloister Walk
“The best writing is the most honest, and K.J. Ramsey has written a memoir that tells the whole truth with all its teeth and tenderness. This is a searing and generous companion for anyone who’s carried trauma, chronic illness, or the wreckage of bad religion in their body.”
—David Gate, author of A Rebellion of Care
“An antidote to cynicism and despair in the midst of suffering, Ramsey generously offers all of us a hard-won story of how to deepen our capacity for joy, even when nothing has turned out as advertised.”
—Sarah Bessey, bestselling author of Field Notes for the Wilderness and editor of A Rhythm of Prayer
About the Author
K.J. Ramsey is an increasingly feral mystic who is utterly devoted to the joy of being alive. She is a body-centered licensed professional counselor specialized in trauma recovery and an acclaimed author of prose and poetry, including The Book of Common Courage, The Lord Is My Courage, and This Too Shall Last, as well as the bestselling essay Substack Embodied. KJ advocates for fellow autoimmune patients and lives in Colorado with her husband Ryan, a hospice chaplain, and their two velcro dogs. WEBSITE
