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‘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.