Anchor Out: A Novel

(Paperback)

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Description

Sixty-year-old Frances Pia lives alone on a thirty-foot sailboat anchored near Sausalito, where she communes with the fog, sea lions, cormorants, and two sailor friends, Otto and Russell. She performs random acts of public defacementpainting drainpipes, public restrooms, and murals on the sides of houseswhich she believes are beautification projects, and struggles with bouts of depression and mania. Frankly, shes a bit of a nutcase.
But Frances wasnt always this way. She was once a Catholic nun with a sister, Anne, who loved her dearly. But then she slept with her brother-in-law, Gregand ashamed and pregnant, she fled, leaving Anne, her art, and her vocation behind. When she also lost her baby, Nicola, in a freak accident, she lost faith in God and became a keeper of sorrows.
Through a series of wacky adventures, including bouts with the cops and the sea, Frances opens her heart to love for the first time in yearsand begins to really paint the town, redeeming herself with Anne and freeing herself from her guilt over Nicolas death along the way.

Reviews

2019 Best Book Awards Finalist in Women's Fiction 2017 IPPY Bronze medal Winner in Pacifc West Best Regional Fiction "Frances Pia del Aqua is a sixty-year old renegade, mystic, artist, ex-nun, and nut case. A chronic run-away, she lives on a tenuously anchored old boat in the middle of Richardson Bay and paddles in to shore for her coffees, conversations, and painting projects. Barbara Sapienza has depicted the life and world of this difficult, loveable, misunderstood woman with a tender sensitivity that is unforgettable." Molly Giles, author of All the Wrong Places "Sapienza explores the difficult task of forgiveness of others and of oneself in this unusual story of Frances, who can't seem to break her fall from grace. She describes the Sausalito waterfront world with a painter's eye and creates vibrant characters with a psychologist's insights. It is a quiet, exquisite novel that invites deep self-reflection." Sharmon J. Hilfinger , author of Arctic Requiem: The Story of Luke Cole and Kivalina "Setting her novel around the cold but welcoming waters of the Golden Gate, Barbara Sapienza paints a picture of what it might mean to fall in love with an imperfect life. "Love is survival," we learn in these pages, and Anchor Out is a beautiful and moving labor of love." Camille T. Dungy, author of Guidebook to Relative Strangers

Author Bio

Barbara Sapienza is a retired clinical psychologist who practiced in San Francisco. At sixty-six she enrolled in the graduate program in Creative Writing at SFSU. She writes, paints, dances, practices taiji and meditation, and volunteers in a school program in Marin City. She lives in Sausalito with her husband and enjoys her granddaughters, Milla and Isa.