by Kristin Henderson

After 9/11, Kristin Henderson's husband, a Lutheran Marine chaplain, is shipped out to Afghanistan, and Henderson, a Quaker, finds herself alone, and her own faith and belief in pacifism sorely tested. Together with her German shepherd, Rosie, Henderson sets off on a cross-country journey in her 1978 Corvette, exploring a changed country and her own altered emotional landscape. From the whispering Iowan corn fields and the simple fortitude of her Quaker kin, to the desolation of a snow-swept lodge in the Rocky Mountains and the quiet gifts of strangers, Henderson seeks guidance and searches for answers on the road. She muses on her life as a military wife, on the unexpected divergence in faith that tested her marriage, and details, with honesty and fierce bravery, the devastating battle with infertility that nearly tore it apart. In this intelligent meditation on how life—like topographical boundaries—resists strict borders, and on the freedom that comes with letting go, Kristin Henderson gives us an ultimately hopeful and affirming memoir.