About this item
A true story about the ways loss can transform us into the people we want to become.. Laurel Braitman spent her childhood learning how to outfish grown men, keep bees, and fix carburetors from her larger-than-life dad. Diagnosed with terminal cancer, he went to spectacular lengths to teach her the skills she'd need to survive without him. But by her mid-thirties she is a ship about to splinter on the rocks, exhausted by running from her own bad feelings. We follow as Laurel changes course, navigating multiple wildernesses - from northern New Mexico and western Alaska to her own Tinder app. She learns the hard way that no achievement, no matter how shiny, can protect her from pain, and works to transform guilt and regret into gold: learning from a badass birder in the Bering Sea, a few dozen grieving kids in a support group, a pile of smoking ashes, and countless online dates.
About the Author
Laurel Braitman has written stories about science, animals and other topics for Cabinet, Orion, The New Inquiry, and other publications, and performs live for Pop Up Magazine in San Francisco. She received her PhD in history and anthropology of science from MIT and is an affiliate artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts. She lives on a houseboat in Sausalito, California.
