Memoir Monday... Traveling Alongside Ghosts Past Times Shannon Leone Fowler

From grief to reckoning to reflection to solace, a marine biologist shares the solo journeying she took— through war-ravaged Eastern Europe, Israel, in addition to beyond—to honor peace later her fiancé suffered a fatal fix on yesteryear a box jellyfish inwards Thailand.

In the summertime of 2002, Shannon Leone Fowler, a twenty-eight-year-old marine biologist, was backpacking alongside her fiancé in addition to dearest of her life, Sean. Sean was a tall, blue-eyed, warmhearted Australian, in addition to he in addition to Shannon planned to supply to Commonwealth of Australia later their excursion to Koh Pha Ngan, Thailand. Their plans, however, were devastatingly derailed when a box jellyfish—the almost venomous beast inwards the world—wrapped around Sean’s leg, stinging in addition to killing him inwards a thing of minutes every bit Shannon helplessly watched. Rejecting the Thai regime endeavour to label Sean’s expiry a “drunk drowning,” Shannon ferried his trunk domicile to his stunned family—a identify unit of measurement to which she all of a abrupt no longer belonged.

Shattered in addition to untethered, Shannon’s life paused indefinitely then that she could go around the basis to honor healing. Travel had forged her human relationship alongside Sean, in addition to she hoped it could also assist inwards processing his death. Though Sean wasn’t alongside Shannon, he was everywhere she went—among the places she visited were Oświęcim, Poland (the site of Auschwitz); war-torn Israel; shelled-out Bosnia; poverty-stricken Romania; in addition to in conclusion to Barcelona, where she commencement met Sean years before. Ultimately, Shannon had to facial expression the body of body of water later her life’s commencement corking dearest took her 2nd corking dearest away.

Cheryl Strayed’s Wild meets Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk inwards this beautiful, profoundly moving memorial to those nosotros accept lost on our journeys in addition to the unexpected ways their presence echoes inwards all places—and voyages—big in addition to small.

Published yesteryear Simon & Schuster, Feb 2017.

For some argue the encompass grabbed my attention. Maybe because it had the give-and-take "ghost" inwards the championship in addition to I dearest ghost stories. Then I read the within jacket, which told me this was a "different" sort of ghost storey in addition to a sort of dearest story. The encompass may accept grabbed my attention, only Shannon Leone Fowler's writing hooked me. In my TBR pile... in addition to it passed the "Joy" test. ( Not certain what the "Joy" examination is? Look at Sunday's Moving Madness post!)