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Letters from a Distant Shore

Marie Lawson Fiala
CavanKerry Press Ltd. (2010)
ISBN 9781933880198
Reviewed by Kam Aures for RebeccasReads (08/10)


“Nothing marks the last normal hours of your life as special, nothing that you look back on and say, ‘There, that was the turning point.  If only I had paid attention, I would have known, I would have treasured those hours.  If only…’ You awaken one morning to the same mundane details as any other day:  housework, grocery shopping, squabbling children, sticky hands and faces, small irritations, and small pleasures.  Without warning live pivots sharply, and you have left your last, inestimably precious, normal moment far behind.  Then you would give anything to have it back, but it is lost to you forever.” (p.5)

When he was thirteen, Fiala’s son Jeremy collapsed and fell into unconsciousness for no apparent reason.  The cause is determined to be a ruptured artery deep inside Jeremy’s brain which was caused by a rare congenital defect.  The hemorrhage caused him to fall into a coma.  “Letters from a Distant Shore” chronicles this family’s journey through this tragedy.

Fiala’s work is beautifully written.  I was struck by how emotional and moving the book is. “Letters from a Distant Shore” is a memoir that really makes you think and appreciate the life that you have, because in a split second things could be drastically turned on their head.  Her writing really opens your eyes to the importance of treasuring all of those little, seemingly mundane moments.  Fiala is an extremely strong woman and I admire the way that she handled the tragic situation. 

I found myself unable to be torn away from the book as the suspense in the writing was definitely there.   One thing that I would recommend though, if you would like a better reading experience, is to pass over the Introduction because there are two paragraphs that essentially summarize the book from start to finish.  Reading Fiala’s account of the situation in the actual body of the book itself is a much better way to hear her story!