Braver Than You Think
Around the World on the Trip of My (Mother's) Lifetime
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4.0 • 5 Ratings
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- $15.99
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
A deeply moving memoir of grief and loss, dreams and adventure, mothers and daughters—of losing a parent while discovering the world
A newly married and established journalist quits her job, sells her belongings, and embarks on the solo backpacking trip of a lifetime: her mother’s.
As a child, Maggie Downs often doubted that she would ever possess the courage to visit the destinations her mother dreamed of one day seeing. “You are braver than you think,” her mother always insisted. That statement would guide her as, over the course of one year, Downs backpacked through 17 countries―visiting all the places her mother, struck with early–onset Alzheimer’s disease, could not visit herself―encountering some of the world’s most striking locales while confronting the slow loss of her mother. Interweaving travelogue with family memories, Braver Than You Think takes the reader hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, white–water rafting on the Nile, volunteering at a monkey sanctuary in Bolivia, praying at an ashram in India, and fleeing the Arab Spring in Egypt.
By embarking on an international journey, Downs learned to make every moment count―traveling around the globe and home again, losing a parent while discovering the world. Perfect for fans of adventure memoirs like Wild and Welcome to the Goddamn Ice Cube, Braver Than You Think explores grief and loss with tenderness, clarity, and humor, and offers a truly incredible roadmap to coping with the unimaginable.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
In this poignant memoir, a grieving young woman goes searching for solace and finds it within herself. Newlywed Maggie Downs was reeling from the slow decay of her mother due to Alzheimer’s when she decided to quit her job and take a yearlong backpacking trip through three continents and 17 countries—just like her mother had always wanted to. As she hikes the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, volunteers at a monkey sanctuary in Bolivia, becomes a radio DJ in Uganda, and escapes the Arab Spring revolution in Egypt, Downs discovers a sense of strength and confidence within herself she never knew existed. We loved the way she peppers her exciting adventures with tender memories of her beloved family. Fans of memoirs like Wild will be inspired by this thoughtful journey through love, loss, and acceptance.
