Without a Map: A Memoir: Updated

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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 an epilogue from the author Meredith Hall's moving but unsentimental memoir begins in 1965, when she becomes pregnant at sixteen. 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 twenty-one, 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.

Reviews

"Without a Map is stunning... Book groups, take note."
Booklist

"Hall's memoir is a sobering portrayal of how punitive her close-knit New Hampshire community was in 1965 when, at the age of 16, she became pregnant in the course of a casual summer romance... Hall offers a testament to the importance of understanding and even forgiving the people who, however unconscious or unkind, have made us who we are."
O, The Oprah Magazine

"A brave writer of tumultuous beauty."
Entertainment Weekly

"A poignant, unflinchingly assured memoir."
The Boston Globe

"Each chapter of Without a Map is polished and elegantly written... the structure is shapely and the book yields poignant insights."
The Washington Post

"Hall pens a haunting meditation on love, loss, and family... she colors outside the lines with this memoir, full of unexpected twists and turns."
People

"Beautifully rendered."
Elle

Author Bio

Meredith Hall graduated from Bowdoin College at the age of 44. She wrote her first essay, "Killing Chickens," in 2002. Two years later, she won the $50,000 Gift of Freedom Award from A Room of Her Own Foundation. Her other honors include a Pushcart Prize and notable essay recognition in Best American Essays; she was also a finalist for the Rona Jaffe Award. Hall's work has appeared in the New York Times, Creative Nonfiction, The Southern Review, Five Points, Prairie Schooner, and several anthologies. She teaches writing at the University of New Hampshire and splits her time between Maine and California. Visit Meredith Hall's website at www.meredithhall.org.