"This is a wise, funny, and tender book, beautifully written and perfectly executed from first to last sentence. It's about a daughter and her ageing father, it's about genealogy and identity, it's about Ireland, but actually it's about how we love the ones we love.
Moments of Glad Grace is a travelogue of the heart.
It's a road you'll want to travel."
~ Yann Martel, author of Life of Pi
FROM THE BOOK JACKET:
Moments of Glad Grace is a moving and witty memoir of aging, familial love, and the hunt for roots and belonging. The story begins as a trip from Canada to Ireland in search of genealogical data and documents. Being eighty and in the early stages of Parkinson’s Disease, Joe invites his daughter Alison to come along as his research assistant, which might have worked very well had she any interest ― any at all ― in genealogy.
Very quickly, the father-daughter pilgrimage becomes more comical than fruitful, more of a bittersweet adventure than a studious mission. And rather than rigorous genealogy, their explorations move into the realm of family and forgiveness, the primal search for identity and belonging, and questions about responsibility to our ancestors and the extent to which we are shaped by the people who came before us.
Though continually bursting with humour, Moments of Glad Grace is ultimately a song of appreciation for the precious and limited time we have with our parents, the small moments we share, and the gifts of transcendence we might find there.
Full review:
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PLEASE NOTE: ECW Press offers a free e-book version AND a discount on the audiobook with proof of purchase of the paper book. Details here.
ANATOMY OF AN AUDIOBOOK
Alison narrated the audiobook versions of Moments of Glad Grace and Confessions of a Fairy’s Daughter, and recorded a few short behind-the-scenes videos of the process.
BOOK CLUBS
For a book club guide, click the image below:
PODCAST INTERVIEW
The Reframe Your Life podcast explores the stories and topics that have lead to change and transformation in our lives. The podcast focuses on bringing authors and speakers who are sharing powerful stories that have shaped their lives, and using storytelling as a way to make sense of the world around us and to reclaim what is true in our lives.
INTERESTED IN MEMOIR WRITING?
Alison’s 12-week memoir writing program can help you transform your personal writing into memoir.