Without a Map Audiobook By Meredith Hall cover art

Without a Map

A Memoir

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Without a Map

By: Meredith Hall
Narrated by: Kathe Mazur
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Meredith Hall's moving but unsentimental memoir begins in 1965, when she becomes pregnant at 16. Shunned by her insular New Hampshire community, she is then kicked out of the house by her mother. Her father and stepmother reluctantly take her in, hiding her before they finally banish her altogether. After giving her baby up for adoption, Hall wanders recklessly through the Middle East, where she survives by selling her possessions and finally her blood. She returns to New England and stitches together a life that encircles her silenced and invisible grief.

When he is 21, her lost son finds her. Hall learns that he grew up in gritty poverty with an abusive father - in her own father's hometown. Their reunion is tender, turbulent, and ultimately redemptive. Hall's parents never ask for her forgiveness, yet as they age, she offers them her love. What sets Without a Map apart is the way in which loss and betrayal evolve into compassion, and compassion into wisdom.

©2008 Meredith Hall (P)2012 Audible, Inc. Adoption & Fostering Biographies & Memoirs Motherhood Parenting & Families Relationships Women Memoir

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Balanced with all the war stories I have listened too over the years. How did she manage it all?

Enjoy the story.

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Beautifully written story of a life lived with grace. I listened to this book with gripping anticipation of what would happen next. I wished I could pluck the young 16 year old girl from out of the story and give her a room in my house one where she and her baby could live with love for each other and from a motherly older woman. I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves memoirs.

Excellent memoir

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Kicked out by her mother, and shunned by her small town community in New Hampshire— it's a rocky start. Hall’s life doesn't end up on People magazine— there's no plastic surgery/makeover ending.

Meredith moves to the Middle East, first on a whim, but it’s a decision that changes her life. She sells every one of her possessions, and yet arrives on the other side of her adventure with something much more precious, as well as a relationship she never dreamed she’d have.

Not Your Average "16 and Pregnant"

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I loved this book. Meredith Hall is a nuanced writer who weaves the story of her youth and coming of age as a novelist might. As she writes about gut-wrenching hurt and lyrical joy, I found myself lingering on her descriptive phrases. Maybe because I am of a similar age as the author I found myself identifying with many of her travels and experiences, yet any woman of any age will be able to identify with this stunning memoir. Don’t miss this book, it’s a gem!

Lyrical and Sublime

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Meredith Hall spates no indignity, loss o
r humiliation in her search for the brutal truth. She paints an unforgiving portrait of puritanical New England at its darkest. She is cast out as the worst kind of sinner, abandoned by her mother and father. She sinks as far as one can go and survive. She finds redemption and forgiveness and carves a life out of love and tolerance and education. Wonderful read.

This is the real thing

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