fifty-seven fridays

a note from Myra

I wanted to share our labor of love and ask for you to come along with us as we share Havi with the world. Fifty-seven Fridays: Losing Our Daughter, Finding Our Way, our memoir honoring Havi and chronicling our journey helping her live and die.


If we can't have Havi here with us, this is the best we can do: Hope that she makes the lives of others a bit gentler, a bit more beautiful, a bit more forgiving, a bit more generous. We wish more than anything we didn't have to be her messenger, but here we are.

about fifty-seven fridays

Life is unfolding as planned for Myra Sack and her husband Matt until their beautiful year-old daughter Havi is diagnosed with Tay-Sachs, a fatal neurodegenerative disease, and given only a year to live. Myra and Matt decide to celebrate Havi’s short life and vow to show her as much of the world as they can, surrounded by friends and family who relocate to be in Havi’s orbit. Tapping their Judaism, they transform Friday night Shabbats into birthday parties—“Shabbirthdays”—to replace the birthdays Havi will never have.

  • “A wondrous, hopeful, heart-breaking witness to one of the darkest journeys imaginable… This will be one of those rare books that people re-read, think about, and encourage others to read.”

    Bruce D. Perry, M.D., Ph.D, author, with Oprah Winfrey, of What Happened to You

  • “I love this book. I absolutely could not put it down. It is beautifully written and cuts to the very heart of life and love: The story of Havi’s short, beautiful life and early death from Tay-Sachs is harrowing, heartbreaking, uplifting, profound and sometimes funny. Havi will charm the socks off you.”

    Anne Lamott

  • “Required reading for any parent. The book-beautiful, propulsive, wrenching, and true - reveals the essential truth that there is no love without loss, and that we learn how to love through and within our grief.”

    Emily Rapp Black, New York Times Best-Selling author of The Still Point of the Turning World

  • “Myra Sack’s memoir is a deeply personal look at her family’s resilience in the face of the unimaginable. Fifty-Seven Fridays will help so many others find strength.”

    Sheryl Sandberg, Former COO Facebook

  • “The book is both a balm and a manual for anyone who has grieved - which is to say, each and every one of us. I have never read anything like this.”

    Lauren Markham, Author of The Far Away Brothers

  • “Myra Sack does not just shine a light on the inextricable bond between grief and gratitude, anguish and joy, but also provides guidance on how to navigate the impossible.”

    Beck Dorey-Stein, New York Times bestselling author of From the Corner of the Oval

  • “The love that radiates from these pages has the power to mend the broken world.”

    Mirabai Starr, Author of God of Love

  • “The most incredible memoir… Havi’s story will break your heart and mend it bigger than before.”

    Lisa Keefauver, Author of Grief is a Sneaky Bitch

  • “As heartening as it is sad, as beautiful as it is disturbing, this book is an act of grace.”

    Beverly Donofrio, Author of Riding in Cars with Boys

  • “Achingly beautiful and wise.”

    Alexi Pappas, Olympian and Author of Bravey

  • “Fifty-Sev­en Fri­days is a sto­ry of fam­i­ly, love, and the pow­er of com­mu­ni­ty, as well as a dev­as­tat­ing yet hope­ful med­i­ta­tion on loss. It will stay with read­ers long after they reach the final page.”

    The Jewish Book Council

available now

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available now ⋆

upcoming book tour events

  • Boston, MA

    Wednesday, April 10th at 7pm

    Brookline Booksmith

    279 Harvard Street, Brookline MA 02446

    RSVP here

  • San Francisco, CA

    Saturday, April 20th at 1pm

    Book Passages Corte Madera

    51 Tamal Vista Blvd, Corte Madera, CA 94925

    more information

  • Philadelphia, PA

    Wednesday, May 8th at 7pm

    Kaiserman JCC

    (Hosted by Children's Book World)

    45 Haverford Road, Wynnewood, PA 19096

    more information

  • Hanover, NH

    Wednesday, September 25th

    Still North Books & Bar

    3 Allen St, Hanover, NH 03755

    more to come

additional publications by myra

Holding Havi

Boston Globe Magazine - Cover Story | June 8, 2022

Losing a Child to Tay-Sachs Tests
a Mother’s Faith

Hadassah Magazine | September 2022

Discussing Fifty-seven Fridays (podcast)

The Kathryn Zox Show | April 2024

recent book talks

E-Motion Founder, Myra Sack, in conversation with Dr. Joanne Cacciatore, founder of the MISS Foundation.

E-Motion Founder, Myra Sack, in conversation with Blyth Lord, the Executive Director at Courageous Parents Network.