TRAVELING WITH GHOSTS

In her deft and lovely debut, the memoir Traveling with Ghosts, Fowler tells [this] wrenching story with grace and fortitude.” “Just as Fowler’s difficult path after Sean’s death yields lessons about survival and resilience, her friendship with Anat and Talia, which continues to this day, yields its own lessons, of a kindness so extraordinary that it’s nearly as affecting as the tragedy at the book’s center.

After witnessing the senseless death of her fiancé, Shannon Fowler sets out on an unforgettable journey of reckoning, paying tribute to her young man’s adventurous soul while trying to make sense of the rest of her life without him. Fowler’s voice is powerful and searching, and the book left me deeply moved, not only by her courage, but by that of all the citizens of the devastated landscapes to which she so beautifully bears witness.

In Traveling with Ghosts Shannon Leone Fowler has created a searing memoir that recounts the moment her life was shattered by the death of her fiancé, young Australian Sean Reilly, and the months afterward as she stumbles around the war torn and poverty stricken countries of Eastern Europe trying to find a nonexistent balm to ease her grief. Coping as best she can with the terrible knowledge that Sean was just one of a number of people who swam in the Thailand ocean having never been warned that the most venomous creature on earth was there, Shannon celebrates in Traveling with Ghosts the life she had with Sean, the love they shared, and the future they planned. Rich with descriptions of place, beautifully constructed with a chronology that allows the reader to know the Sean that she knew, portrayed with honesty and dignity, Traveling with Ghosts celebrates a life cut short, a love never given a chance to grow, and a process of recovery bravely illustrating that while life after tragedy goes on, the chilly fingers of grief touch us in a way that mark us forever.

A stunningly wise, thoughtful, and thought-provoking ‘survival map’ of a memoir…Drawing from journals of her travels before and after the sudden death of her fiancé, Shannon Leone Fowler shares insights into life, love, and grieving in prose that is raw and unsentimental, and yet spills over with love. Put it on the shelf somewhere between Eat, Pray, Love and The Year of Magical Thinking. Traveling with Ghosts made me laugh out loud, and it broke my heart. In its unforgettable final pages, it did both at once, and, as only the very finest books do, its power over me grows rather than fades.

British: Weidenfeldt & Nicolson

Powerful and heartbreaking, Traveling with Ghosts, is beautifully written and emotionally compelling. It is Shannon Leone Fowler's journey of survival and healing after the tragic and unexpected death of her fiancé. Battling grief with grief, she travels alone through devastated Eastern European countries, only to find her life held together by the rawness of place and the unexpected kindness of strangers. A gorgeous book to be read and savored.

Shannon Fowler’s vivid tale of love and loss moved me deeply. She is a traveler who seeks healing in the most unlikely destinations, and who tells her remarkable story with camera-like precision rather than platitudes. Her book is a stirring tribute to a beloved fellow traveler, and a reflection of her own abundant courage.

Heartbreaking but beautiful. ... As much as this is a tale of grief and loss, it’s one of love, too.

Raw. ... Powerful. ... Redemptive.

Gloriously rendered, beautifully written, but utterly devastating… an intimate and inspiring experience. Read more...

Searing reading. [Fowler] is a writer who is a wonder at conveying pain amid a rush of emotions. She is a wise writer, too, understanding the nature of danger, confronting it, which can sometimes leave one person unscathed and another destroyed. ... [Fowler] epitomizes Ernest Hemingway’s classic definition of courage: grace under pressure.

In this vital and compelling memoir, Shannon Fowler documents the sudden death of her fiancé and the year of flight that follows. Traveling with Ghosts teaches us how to reconcile ourselves with the world once the person we love is no longer in it. This is a book about the kindness of strangers, the consolation of unknown places, and the way that the world can be bright and dark, wide and narrow, all at the same time.

This beautifully written, wonderfully engrossing book makes real the stubborn process by which we come to accept loss. Shannon Leone Fowler has made a wonderful gift of her hard won insights, and comes to a place of compassion that resonates deeply for me. I am grateful for this book. I cannot wait to give it to people I love.

Fowler has turned her devastating, beautiful, honest, and personal story into something universal. Akin to Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, her book will appeal to globetrotters and readers of hopeful stories chronicling grief and recovery.

Fowler shows none of the self-aggrandizement that saturates many memoirs, and she lived a far more interesting life—before and after Sean’s death—than do many who write about theirs. Her story—rich, unblinking and adroitly told—is one of strength, of getting past but not getting over. Few would choose the approach Fowler took to kick-start healing. But hers is a thought-provoking journey that she generously shares. Read more...

Shannon Fowler’s restlessness in the face of her unimaginable loss makes the reader feel her battered Lonely Planet travel guide was aptly named. Like Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Fowler makes us feel that a hero’s journey is our only hope for surviving grief.Traveling with Ghosts is a brave and necessary record of love, as beautiful as it is heartbreaking.

Shannon Fowler’s remarkable memoir feels as if it’s as intricate and deep as memory itself. It’s a privilege to be in her company as she travels to harrowing cities the world over, and more harrowing, to the mysterious interior realm, the country of grief. The comforts she finds there are without sentiment and profoundly moving.

This book is a heartbreaker, but so beautiful, both haunted and haunting. I’ve never read anything quite like it.

Shannon Leone Fowler journeys courageously behind the clichés to explore how nations, cultures, and above all, individuals, grapple with loss; a vivid, compelling and deeply affecting memoir.

You should read this book if you like: Memoirs, marine biologists, overcoming tragedy, world travel, Cheryl Strayed's Wild.

Fowler’s moving account traces her grief. … [A] nicely written and informative journey on the path to healing.

A courageous and finely crafted account soaked in tears of love and loss.

[An] intensely personal and appealing memoir. ... Bring along a world map, set aside everything you know about healing from heartbreaking loss, and have yourself an unforgettable read.