Transcending the Legacy, Nancy Brown

Nancy is a dear friend. She lives and writes in Kingston, around the corner from the central library. Nancy, Congratulations on publishing your second book!

In Transcending the Legacy (Penumbra Press), Nancy continues her search for self-understanding that she began in her memoir Facing Life. Her subject is once again the life-long effects of the sexual abuse that she suffered as a very young child, the decades of addictive behaviour that nearly destroyed her, and the recovery process that has been the central project of her life in recent years. Her impulse is again autobiographical, but instead of a chronological narrative we are given incident-based meditations in which she analyzes the strategies, many of them futile and counterproductive, but the most recent of them hearteningly effective, by which Nancy has struggled to live and find joy again.

"MOST OF US have either complained about the bad deal life has handed to us, or have heard others utter such a complaint. We wish we could have a ready answer, an anti-complaint potion. I found one. It is Nancy Brown's book, Facing Life. After reading this book, you are left wondering how Nancy Brown could still be alive, never mind vibrant enough to write inspirational books. And you are also left with a most powerful and resounding message—what, me complain?!" —Rabbi Reuven P. Bulka, Congregation Machzikei Hadas, Ottawa, Host of Sunday Night with Rabbi Bulka on 580 CFRA, author of more than thirty books, and regular columnist for the Ottawa Citizen

Transcending the Legacy is available at bookstores or through direct order from Penumbra Press here: http://www.penumbrapress.com/book.php?id=304

Facing Life is also available through Penumbra here: http://www.penumbrapress.com/book.php?id=290

Note: For information about Brian Henry's upcoming writing workshops and creative writing courses, see here.