Whispers from the Valley of the Yak - by Jacquelyn Lenox Tuxill (Paperback)

About the Book

Jackie has known tumultuous times: she escaped war-torn China as a toddler with her medical missionary parents, grew up with emotional abuse, and came of age in the 1960s. But after returning to China at thirty-eight with her aging parents and being stunned by a revelation about their past, she begins an unexpected quest--for forgiveness, self-fulfillment, and the authentic life she craves.

Book Synopsis

Jackie, born of medical missionaries in China during World War II, rejected her connection to her birth country growing up because it made her different.

A return to China with her parents in 1980, however, is life-changing. After always having known her mother as distant and emotionally abusive, she is stunned to see a loving side to her for the first time--and pleasantly surprised by the affinity she feels for her birth country.

These revelations launch Jackie on a quest to understand her difficult childhood and who she is beyond "wife," "mother," and "daughter." Her journey takes her first to the mountainous landscapes of Alaska, where she finds a passion for nature and begins a thirty-five-year environmental career. As she builds her life there and later in New England, she makes multiple trips to her birth country--with her parents, alone, and with her adult children. Each of these trips provides a benchmark for the growth and transformation she undergoes as she learns to create the authentic life she craves.

Deeply reflective and sensitively rendered, Whispers from the Valley of the Yak touches on the healing power of nature and universal themes of unconditional love and forgiveness--and, most importantly, being true to oneself.

Review Quotes

2024 Independent Press Awards Distinguished Favorite in Memoir

"An exquisitely told, never-to-be-forgotten story."
--Story Circle Network

"This gripping memoir from Jacquelyn Tuxill combines a story of familial struggles and reconciliation with the grandeur of revelation amid high mountains. Her climactic journeys to her birthplace of Chengdu and the majestic peak Minya Konka in southwestern China, first with her parents and then with her grown children, rewarded her with a vantage point from which to understand and affirm her personal history. They also offer readers a dramatic counterpoint to their customary worlds, which is the
true gift of fine travel writing."
--John Elder, author of Reading the Mountains of Home and English and environmental studies teacher at Middlebury College

"In Whispers from the Valley of the Yak, Jacquelyn Tuxill breaks away from a confining childhood with parents committed to their medical work--first as missionaries in China, where the author was born, and later in West Virginia. . . . Her vivid descriptions of panoramas in Alaska and China mirror the wild beauty she ultimately finds within herself. This memoir will take readers on a journey they won't want to end."
--Louella Bryant, author of Sheltering Angel: A Novel Based on a True Story

"Whispers from the Valley of the Yak is a story about landscapes. From her birthplace in China to her connection with Denali, North America's tallest peak, Tuxill navigates her early years as a mom in the shadow of her rocky relationship with her own mother. She finds her way beyond the lost relationship with her spouse, then passes through the grief of losing her beloved father and later, her mother. Ultimately, Tuxill explores how she came to terms with the unexpected landscape of her own heart. A wonderfully rendered story."
--Kaylene Johnson-Sullivan, author of A Tender Distance and Our Perfect Wild