Without a Map
A Memoir
Published on 9. April 2024
264 pages
978-0-8070-2023-4 (ISBN)
Description
The national best-selling memoir about banishment, reconciliation, and the meaning of family
"This sobering portrayal of a pregnant teen exiled from her small New Hampshire community is a testament to the importance of understanding and even forgiving the people who . . . have made us who we are."-O, The Oprah Magazine
A New York Times Bestseller, now with a new epilogue from the author
Meredith Hall's moving but unsentimental memoir begins in 1965, when she becomes pregnant at 16. Shunned by her insular New Hampshire community, she is then kicked out of the house by her mother. Her father and stepmother reluctantly take her in, hiding her before they finally banish her altogether. After giving her baby up for adoption, Hall wanders recklessly through the Middle East, where she survives by selling her possessions and finally her blood. She returns to New England and stitches together a life that encircles her silenced and invisible grief. Her lost son tracks her down when he turns 21, and Hall learns that he grew up in gritty poverty with an abusive father in her own father's hometown. Their reunion is tender, turbulent, and ultimately redemptive. Hall's parents never ask for her forgiveness, yet as they age, she offers them her love. Here, loss and betrayal evolve into compassion, and compassion into wisdom.
"This sobering portrayal of a pregnant teen exiled from her small New Hampshire community is a testament to the importance of understanding and even forgiving the people who . . . have made us who we are."-O, The Oprah Magazine
A New York Times Bestseller, now with a new epilogue from the author
Meredith Hall's moving but unsentimental memoir begins in 1965, when she becomes pregnant at 16. Shunned by her insular New Hampshire community, she is then kicked out of the house by her mother. Her father and stepmother reluctantly take her in, hiding her before they finally banish her altogether. After giving her baby up for adoption, Hall wanders recklessly through the Middle East, where she survives by selling her possessions and finally her blood. She returns to New England and stitches together a life that encircles her silenced and invisible grief. Her lost son tracks her down when he turns 21, and Hall learns that he grew up in gritty poverty with an abusive father in her own father's hometown. Their reunion is tender, turbulent, and ultimately redemptive. Hall's parents never ask for her forgiveness, yet as they age, she offers them her love. Here, loss and betrayal evolve into compassion, and compassion into wisdom.
More details
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
04/2024
Beacon Press
€17.50
Shipment within 10-20 days
Person
Meredith Hall's awards include a two-year literary grant from A Room of Her Own Foundation, a Pushcart Prize and Maine's Book of the Year award. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Kenyon Review, The Paris Review, Five Points and many other journals and anthologies. Her debut novel, Beneficence, was published by David. R. Godine Publishing in 2020. Hall is Professor Emerita in the MFA writing program at the University of New Hampshire, and divides her time between Maine and California.
Content
Prologue:
Shunned
Chapter One:
The Lonely Hunter
Chapter Two:
Waiting
Chapter Three:
Stronghold
Chapter Four:
The Uprising
Chapter Five:
Again
Chapter Six:
Drawing the Line
Chapter Seven:
Without a Map
Chapter Eight:
A River of Light
Chapter Nine:
Double Vision
Chapter Ten:
Killing Chickens
Chapter Eleven:
Threshold
Chapter Twelve:
Propitiation
Chapter Thirteen:
Chimeras
Chapter Fourteen:
Reckonings
Chapter Fifteen:
The River of Forgetting
Chapter Sixteen:
Sojourn
Chapter Seventeen:
Outport Shadows
Epilogue:
Gratitude
Shunned
Chapter One:
The Lonely Hunter
Chapter Two:
Waiting
Chapter Three:
Stronghold
Chapter Four:
The Uprising
Chapter Five:
Again
Chapter Six:
Drawing the Line
Chapter Seven:
Without a Map
Chapter Eight:
A River of Light
Chapter Nine:
Double Vision
Chapter Ten:
Killing Chickens
Chapter Eleven:
Threshold
Chapter Twelve:
Propitiation
Chapter Thirteen:
Chimeras
Chapter Fourteen:
Reckonings
Chapter Fifteen:
The River of Forgetting
Chapter Sixteen:
Sojourn
Chapter Seventeen:
Outport Shadows
Epilogue:
Gratitude
