“When two seventeen-year-old thugs slew an ambitious young woman,
Susan Schaffer, in her own home, the crime wasn’t just another
story of gun violence in America. Susan’s mother, Lois, made sure of that!
The Unthinkable is a detailed account of Susan’s life and a powerful
narrative aimed at stopping “unthinkable” carnage. It is a profoundly
brave and honest testimony that will move hearts and minds.”
—Rabbi Shaul Marshall Praver
Newtown, Connecticut

“The Unthinkable is our contemporary In Cold Blood story, for that
is how Susie died, in cold blood. Lois Schaffer captures the
anguish in the aftermath of losing a child to gun violence. A mother,
trying to make sense of a violent death of a kind, compassionate daughter, where there is none. It is a story that too many mothers in America share.
Ms. Schaffer summons the courage to tell it.”
—Hon. Michelle Schimel New York Assemblywoman-Sixteenth District,
and Co-Chair of State Legislators Against Illegal Guns (SLAIG)

“This book is a powerful story about a tragic event that brought
Lois’s family to its knees. It’s a story about gun violence at its worst.
But, most importantly, it’s a story about resilience in the face of adversity.
I hope that it will inspire all of us to follow Lois’s lead in a push to pursue real reform so that other families do not have to live the nightmare that hers has.”
—Kathleen M. Rice
Nassau County District Attorney

“What Lois Schaffer has captured in The Unthinkable is the appalling
resonance of gun violence, which shattered lives through three
generations of her family. The brutal murder of her daughter has
given a heart-rending passion and eloquence to Lois’s voice in a book
that calls out powerfully for an end to the gun culture that is fast
becoming the most shameful manifestation of American exceptionalism.”
—Mitchell Rosenthal, MD Founder, Phoenix House