A Woman in the Wild - by Tad Crawford (Hardcover)

About the Book

"A revealing and memorable portrait of a woman boldly facing her demons in pursuit of a meaningful life"--

Book Synopsis

A Woman in the Wild is a revealing and memorable portrait of a woman boldly facing her demons in pursuit of a meaningful life.

A psychologist in crisis leaves her established practice in the city for an open-ended retreat in the mountains at the Institute for Healing and Transformation. Feeling lost, betrayed, and stricken by guilt not to have saved her daughter from sexual abuse, she hopes to find a new path to ease her pain and uncertainties.

Soon after her arrival, a "wild" man who roamed the forest with a bear is brought to the institute. When the man is given to her care, she performs a suspenseful balancing as she seeks to heal him as well as herself.

Hiking and meditating each day, she initiates an inner journey that shakes her free from the familiar. As the months pass, she engages her guilt and sorrow, confronts her failures, weighs the limits of therapy and self-forgiveness, and seeks to unleash the healing powers of the unconscious and of love.

Readers will find this an absorbing and dramatic novel of abuse, resilience, and the quest for transformation.

Review Quotes

"Rich in insight, A Woman in the Wild is an engrossing story of desire, healing, and the limits of human knowledge. With mindful reflections upon the wilderness in the world and in our hearts, this tale of a psychologist in crisis is immediately and deeply captivating. A marvelous read."
--Ethan Gallogly, author of The Trail: A Novel

"A Woman in The Wild shows how inspiring and healing the natural world can be. The retreat center where the main characters meet offers no prescription for healing other than a safe place to be and the nourishment of rest and reflection. I especially enjoyed the immense range and complexity of the characters' inner lives as they actively engage the sensate world of the surrounding wilderness. As a psychologist myself, I was not only delighted and surprised with what Thea, the main character, discovers on her quest, I remain deeply inspired by the resounding truth of it!"
--Susan S. Scott, author of Healing with Nature

"A wonderfully original novel. The characters are unusual and engaging, especially the marvelously imagined wild man and the ever-hovering bear concealed in the wilderness. The precision and beauty of the language, together with the measured pace of the narration, allow the time and process required for inner development as well as for conversations and reflections on guilt, the making of amends, healing, loss, and death."
--Inez Martinez, author of To Know the Moon and former general editor of the Jungian Journal for Scholarly Studies

About the Author

TAD CRAWFORD is the author of the novels A Floating Life and On Wine-Dark Seas as well as The Secret Life of Money and a dozen other nonfiction books. His stories and articles have appeared in American Artist, Art in America, The Café Irreal, Confrontation, Communication Arts, Family Circle, Glamour, Guernica, The Nation, and Writer's Digest. Crawford is the founder and publisher of Allworth Press. The recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts award, he grew up in the artists' colony of Woodstock, New York. He now lives in New York City and the Hudson Highlands.