Sailing Grace
Some stories don’t need to get their hair coifed or their teeth whitened before going out in public.
Sailing Grace, honored as “Best New Non-Fiction Book” by Indie Awards, a finalist for USA Book News’ “Best Books” award, and as a “Michigan Notable Book”, is one of those stories. She introduces herself this way:
After eight visits to surgery in eight months, “heart transplant” is working its way into conversations with John’s doctors.
John and Barbara are talking about going sailing instead.
This true story, narrated with present-tense immediacy, begins with John flat on his back in a local health club, gasping for air. It ends thirty-one months and four thousand miles later when he, Barbara, and their two youngest children maneuver their sailboat, Grace, into Schull Harbor, Ireland. A gritty account of their family’s struggle to do better than simply survive, it is also a commentary on how love heals, dreams energize, and trauma can be a wake-up call. From hospital ward to the stormy Atlantic, this hard-edge story will resonate with anyone who has struggled with profound adversity - be it coronary disease, cancer, or the “heavy weather” that unexpectedly blows through every life.
Sailing Grace, honored as “Michigan Notable Book” and a finalist for USA Book News’ “Best Books” award, is available from Samadhi Press.
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