Shannon Moroney
Through the Glass is an intimate and gripping journey into prisons, courtrooms and the human heart in which Shannon Moroney reveals the widespread ripple effect of her husband’s crimes, the agonizing choices faced by the loved ones of offenders and the implicit dangers of a correctional system and a society that prioritizes retribution over rehabilitation, and victimhood over recovery.
Shannon’s story sparks discussion and debate about gaps in the justice system, the treatment of direct and collateral victims, offender accountability, and the future of prisons. It also inspires readers to consider the role forgiveness might play in their own lives—no matter how they have been wronged.
Through the Glass became an instant bestseller when it was released across Canada in 2011 and was nominated for several awards, including the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award (Canada) and the Arthur Ellis Award for Crime Writing. It was listed in CBC's Canada Reads Top 40 (2012) and has also been adopted as required reading at several high schools, colleges and universities. It is currently on the Top 10 List at the Empathy Library.
Through the Glass made its international debut in 2012 (titled The Stranger Inside in the UK only) and has been featured in major newspapers around the world including The Guardian (UK), The National Post (Canada), The Huffington Post, and The Globe and Mail, as well as numerous magazines such as Maclean’s and Chatelaine (Canada), That’s Life (Australia), Bella (UK), Welt der Wunder (Germany), Swiat Wiedzy (Poland), and You (South Africa).
Today, Shannon lives in Toronto where she is remarried and the mother of two-year-old twin girls. She is a sought-after public speaker, member of the international Forgiveness Project, and a volunteer with the award-winning youth program, Leave Out ViolencE (LOVE). She regularly gives public talks, guest lectures, and visits schools, book clubs and inmate groups that are reading her book. She also leads workshops on writing, forgiveness and restorative justice.
“I was realizing that forgiveness was a decision I would have to revisit over and over. It was turning out to be a process, not a single act. Forgiveness neither erased nor diminished the magnitude of Jason's violence and its continuing ripple-effect. It didn't take away the anger, frustration or loss I felt about what he'd done, and it couldn't bring back the life I'd had with him. What forgiveness did do was remind me that there was a human being behind the violence, and that his heinous acts did not represent the sum of who he was. Forgiveness gave me the permission to see and know both aspects of Jason, to be enormously angry and pained by his violent acts, but also to let go of that anguish before it took complete control over my mind and heart. Forgiveness stopped rage from becoming resentment, and it released me from having every aspect of my character and the life I still had ahead from being bound to Jason's violence. Forgiveness put my life back into my own hands.”
“A friend once told me that she understood pity as 'I'm sorry for you', whereas compassion is 'I feel your pain because I see that you could be me and I could be you'.”