Sailing My Shoe to Timbuktu

A mother finds spiritual grace while navigating divorce, new love, her fiftieth birthday, and her aging parents in this humorous & heartfelt memoir.

“Bighearted, enormously moving, and delightful, captures the mysteries, loves, and challenges of parents and children.” —Craig Lesley, author of The Sky Fisherman

In this fiercely candid and moving book, novelist Joyce Thompson recounts a difficult yet transforming period in her life. In words that will ring true to anyone in the “sandwich” generation, Thompson tells the story of her troubled marriage ending, her adjustment to single motherhood, finding new love, turning fifty, dealing with sick and dying parents, and somehow discovering a spiritual home in an ancient, earth-centered tradition.

Along the way, she comes to terms with the blessings and specters of her own dysfunctional family. This includes her father, a distinguished judge and chronic alcoholic, and her tough, smart mother, a pioneering woman lawyer, who is slowly succumbing to Alzheimer''s and whom Thompson helps to die gracefully, despite many traumatic and even ridiculous moments. But with Thompson’s lyrical, personal, and evocative writing, she transforms what could have been a soap opera into a rich, moving, and funny story, full of hope.

“Thompson offers a stellar memoir many baby boomers can relate to: a career-oriented woman finds spiritual grace as she faces the squeeze of the “sandwich generation,” simultaneously caring for children and an aging parent. . . .  A deeply satisfying story.” —Publishers Weekly

“Thompson, author of Bones (1991), this time turns her talent and insight to nonfiction in a personal examination of a transformative time in her life.” —Booklist