‘A cross between H is for Hawk and Wild‘ Stylist
‘A courageous memoir of love and loss . . . compelling’ Sunday Express
‘Intimate and inspiring’ Observer
‘Rich and absorbing’ Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love
‘A brave and necessary record of love, as beautiful as it is heartbreaking’ Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth
On a warm evening on a beautiful beach in Thailand, Shannon Leone Fowler’s life was shattered when a box jellyfish – the most venomous animal in the world – wrapped itself around her fiancé Sean’s legs, stinging and killing him in minutes.
Devastated by the tragedy, Shannon, a marine biologist, could not face returning to her home by the ocean. She had travelled the world with Sean, and to honour his memory set out on a new journey – this time alone, to make sense of her loss.
From contemplating the silence of Auschwitz, to stumbling through poverty-stricken Romania and Bulgaria, to sitting shiva amid daily bombings in Israel, to finding humour and creativity in Sarajevo, a city still scarred by war, Shannon begins to chart a path through grief – learning to live with loss without letting it destroy her.
New edition includes an interview between Shannon Leone Fowler and her mother, author of international bestseller The Jane Austen Book Club and Man Booker Prize shortlisted We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler.
‘A courageous memoir of love and loss . . . compelling’ Sunday Express
‘Intimate and inspiring’ Observer
‘Rich and absorbing’ Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love
‘A brave and necessary record of love, as beautiful as it is heartbreaking’ Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth
On a warm evening on a beautiful beach in Thailand, Shannon Leone Fowler’s life was shattered when a box jellyfish – the most venomous animal in the world – wrapped itself around her fiancé Sean’s legs, stinging and killing him in minutes.
Devastated by the tragedy, Shannon, a marine biologist, could not face returning to her home by the ocean. She had travelled the world with Sean, and to honour his memory set out on a new journey – this time alone, to make sense of her loss.
From contemplating the silence of Auschwitz, to stumbling through poverty-stricken Romania and Bulgaria, to sitting shiva amid daily bombings in Israel, to finding humour and creativity in Sarajevo, a city still scarred by war, Shannon begins to chart a path through grief – learning to live with loss without letting it destroy her.
New edition includes an interview between Shannon Leone Fowler and her mother, author of international bestseller The Jane Austen Book Club and Man Booker Prize shortlisted We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, Karen Joy Fowler.
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Reviews
A moving account ... This is a nicely written and informative journey on the path to healing
[An] intensely personal and appealing memoir . . . Bring along a world map, set aside everything you know about healing from heartbreaking loss, and have yourself an unforgettable read
[Fowler] is a writer who is a wonder at conveying pain amid a rush of emotions. She is a wise writer, too, understanding the nature of danger, confronting it, which can sometimes leave one person unscathed and another destroyed . . . [Fowler] epitomizes Ernest Hemingway's classic definition of courage: grace under pressure
A courageous and finely crafted account soaked in tears of love and loss
[Fowler's] various journeys - through grief, through areas of the world few experience, and through memories of adventures that made her who she was and Sean who he was -- are movingly and honestly told . . . Her story -- rich, unblinking and adroitly told -- is one of strength, of getting past but not getting over. Few would choose the approach Fowler took to kick-start healing. But hers is a thought-provoking journey that she generously shares
Fowler has turned her devastating, beautiful, honest, and personal story into something universal. Akin to Cheryl Strayed's Wild, her book will appeal to globetrotters and readers of hopeful stories chronicling grief and recovery
This book is a heartbreaker, but so beautiful, both haunted and haunting. I've never read anything quite like it
Billed as a cross between Cheryl Strayed's WILD and Helen Macdonald's H IS FOR HAWK, this is a moving account of grief
A compelling and poignant book about love, grief, and recovery
Like Cheryl Strayed's Wild, Fowler makes us feel that a hero's journey is our only hope for surviving grief. Traveling with Ghosts is a brave and necessary record of love, as beautiful as it is heart-breaking
A rich and absorbing memoir that shows the reader what it feels like to lose your future in a matter of seconds in a faraway land . . . Shannon learns to travel on, to get back in the ocean and to build a new life
Heartbreaking but beautiful, Traveling With Ghosts is the story of Shannon Leone Fowler's travels around the world after her fiancé's unexpected death. She brings us along as she drifts from one place to the next, weaving in memories from their time together as well. As much as this is a tale of grief and loss, it's one of love, too.
A heartbreaking story about the randomness of tragedy told with great courage and tenacity
A cross between H is for Hawk and Wild, this beautifully written tale follows Fowler's travels through Eastern Europe after her fiance was killed by a jellyfish
A searing memoir [that] celebrates a life cut short, a love never given a chance to grow, and a process of recovery bravely illustrating that while life after tragedy goes on, the chilly fingers of grief touch us in a way that mark us forever
[A] courageous memoir of love and loss... compelling.
Well-written, moving and at times intensely dark
Fowler's extraordinary rendering of her fiance's sudden death is both fearless and intimate, shot through with the kind of honesty that makes you wonder at the world: its unexpected venom and incipient beauty.
Gloriously rendered, beautifully written, but utterly devastating ... an intimate and inspiring experience . . . balm to the soul, as well as being a necessary witness account of the blackest depths of grief