This life is in your hands : one dream, sixty acres, and a family undone

From Publishers Weekly With urban farming and backyard chicken flocks becoming increasingly popular, Coleman has written this timely and honest portrait of her own childhood experience in Maine with her two homesteading parents during the turbulent 1970s. Inspired by the back-to-the-land lifestyle of Scott and Helen Nearing, Coleman's parents, Sue and Eliot, decided to create their own idyllic reality on 60 acres of land in Maine that was sold to them by the Nearing family for a token sum. While Coleman emphasizes the beauty of growing up in a family culture that valued the bounty of nature and freedom of expression, she does not hesitate to also expose farming's detrimental effect on family life—her own well-being as well as the accidental death of her younger sister. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. Review “Coleman’s moving recounting never loses hope of redemption.” (*People*, Lead Review "People Pick" ) “[This] is a rare breed of book-a memoir that justifies its own existence; that feels like it needs to exist.... Coleman shows that without the essential ingredient of heart, any family-no matter how perfect and revolutionary it seems-is in danger of experiencing real loss.” (NPR.org ) “Lyrical and down-to-earth, wry and heartbreaking, This Life Is In Your Hands is a fascinating and powerful memoir. Melissa Coleman doesn’t just tell the story of her family’s brave experiment and private tragedy; she brings to life an important and underappreciated chapter of our recent history.” (Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher ) “Rendered with sublimity.... [Coleman] fluently describes the power of the natural world, familial love and heartbreak, grace after loss.” (*New York Times Book Review* ) “The Colemans and the Nearings . . . worked hard to create an alternative economy that is still growing in rural America. This memoir is evidence of their great sacrifices. (*Los Angeles Times* ) “Intense readability.... haunting power.... as well as lush, vivid atmosphere that is alluring in its own right.... [A] story so nuanced that it would be a disservice to reveal what was in store. If you want to know what happened, read it for yourself.” (Janet Maslin, *New York Times* ) “This uncompromising memoir is tender, nonjudgmental, and heartfelt.” (*Tuscon Citizen* ) “With beautiful lyrical prose, Coleman shows us what life in a 1970s back-to-nature farm was like, and the dear price her family paid pursuing their dream.” (Ann Hood, author of The Red Thread and The Knitting Circle ) “Melissa Coleman’s enthralling account of ‘70s back-to-the-land living is an important cultural *and* emotional document: this is a story about surviving and, eventually, thriving amidst the shadows of loss.” (Heidi Julavits, author of The Uses of Enchantment ) “A dream, a family, a heartbreaking tragedy—and a book I could not put down. Melissa Coleman’s memoir of a back-to-the-land childhood is fresh, organic, and gorgeously written.” (Peter Behrens, author of The Law of Dreams ) “Combine the sincerity of Walden with the poignancy of The Glass Castle, add dashes of the lush prose found in The Botany of Desire, and you get This Life Is in Your Hands.... I was engaged and deeply moved by this evocative tale of Paradise found then lost.” (Wally Lamb, *The Hour I First Believed* ) “An absorbing read that intelligently arrays the romanticism of living off the land against the emotional challenges of moving off the grid.” (*Grist Magazine* ) From Publishers Weekly With urban farming and backyard chicken flocks becoming increasingly popular, Coleman has written this timely and honest portrait of her own childhood experience in Maine with her two homesteading parents during the turbulent 1970s. Inspired by the back-to-the-land lifestyle of Scott and Helen Nearing, Coleman's parents, Sue and Eliot, decided to create their own idyllic reality on 60 acres of land in Maine that was sold to them by the Nearing family for a token sum. While Coleman emphasizes the beauty of growing up in a family culture that valued the bounty of nature and freedom of expression, she does not hesitate to also expose farming's detrimental effect on family life—her own well-being as well as the accidental death of her younger sister. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved. Review “Combine the sincerity of Walden with the poignancy of The Glass Castle, add dashes of the lush prose found in The Botany of Desire, and you get This Life Is in Your Hands.... I was engaged and deeply moved by this evocative tale of Paradise found then lost.” (Wally Lamb, The Hour I First Believed ) “Melissa Coleman’s enthralling account of ‘70s back-to-the-land living is an important cultural and emotional document: this is a story about surviving and, eventually, thriving amidst the shadows of loss.” (Heidi Julavits, author of The Uses of Enchantment ) “A dream, a family, a heartbreaking tragedy—and a book I could not put down. Melissa Coleman’s memoir of a back-to-the-land childhood is fresh, organic, and gorgeously written.” (Peter Behrens, author of The Law of Dreams ) “Coleman’s moving recounting never loses hope of redemption.” (_People_, Lead Review "People Pick" ) “With beautiful lyrical prose, Coleman shows us what life in a 1970s back-to-nature farm was like, and the dear price her family paid pursuing their dream.” (Ann Hood, author of The Red Thread and The Knitting Circle ) “Lyrical and down-to-earth, wry and heartbreaking, This Life Is In Your Hands is a fascinating and powerful memoir. Melissa Coleman doesn’t just tell the story of her family’s brave experiment and private tragedy; she brings to life an important and underappreciated chapter of our recent history.” (Tom Perrotta, author of Little Children and The Abstinence Teacher ) “Intense readability.... haunting power.... as well as lush, vivid atmosphere that is alluring in its own right.... [A] story so nuanced that it would be a disservice to reveal what was in store. If you want to know what happened, read it for yourself.” (Janet Maslin, New York Times ) “[This] is a rare breed of book-a memoir that justifies its own existence; that feels like it needs to exist.... Coleman shows that without the essential ingredient of heart, any family-no matter how perfect and revolutionary it seems-is in danger of experiencing real loss.” (NPR.org ) History,Self-Help,General,Death,Loss (Psychology),Death; Grief; Bereavement,United States,Family & Relationships,Personal Memoirs,Case studies,Biography & Autobiography,Social Science,State & Local,Health & Fitness,Sociology,Customs & Traditions,Farm life - Maine - Penobscot Bay Region,Drowning - Maine - Penobscot Bay Region,Penobscot Bay Region (Me.),Children - Maine - Penobscot Bay Region - Death,Drowning,Coleman; Melissa - Childhood and youth,Coleman; Melissa - Family,Penobscot Bay Region (Me.) - Social life and customs,Rural,Maine,Coleman; Eliot,Coleman; Sue,Safety,Farm life,Children,Penobscot Bay Region Lyrical and down-to-earth, wry and heartbreaking, This Life Is in Your Hands is a fascinating and powerful memoir. Melissa Coleman doesnt just tell the story of her familys brave experiment and private tragedy; she brings to life an important and underappreciated chapter of our recent history. Tom Perrotta In a work of power and beauty reminiscent of Tobias Wolff, Jeannette Walls, and Dave Eggers, Melissa Coleman delivers a luminous, evocative childhood memoir exploring the hope and struggle behind her family's search for a sustainable lifestyle. With echoes of The Liars Club and Dont Lets Go to the Dogs Tonight , Colemans searing chronicle tells the true story of her upbringing on communes and sustainable farms along the rugged Maine coastline in the 1970s, embedded within a moving, personal quest for truth that her experiences produced.