Will the Circle Be Unbroken?

A Memoir of Learning to Believe You’re Gonna Be Okay

By: Sean Dietrich

Narrated by: Sean Dietrich

From celebrated storyteller "Sean of the South" comes an unforgettable memoir of love, loss, the friction of family memories, and the unlikely hope that you're gonna be alright.

Sean Dietrich was twelve years old when he scattered his father's ashes from the mountain range. His father was a man who lived for baseball, a steel worker with a ready wink, who once scaled a fifty-foot tree just to hang a tire swing for his son. He was also the stranger who tried to kidnap and kill Sean's mother before pulling the trigger on himself. He was a childhood hero, now reduced to a man in a box.

Will the Circle Be Unbroken? is the story of what happens after the unthinkable, and the journey we all must make in finding the courage to stop the cycles of the past from laying claim to our future.

Sean was a seventh-grade drop-out, a dishwasher then a construction worker to help his mother and sister scrape by, and a self-described "nobody with a sad story behind him." Yet he cannot deny the glimmers of life's goodness even amid its rough edges. Such goodness becomes even harder to deny when Sean meets the love of his life at a fried chicken church potluck, and harder still when his lifelong love of storytelling leads him to stages across the southeast, where he is known and loved as "Sean of the South."

A story that will stay with you long after the final page, Will the Circle Be Unbroken? testifies to the strength that lives within us all to make our peace with the past and look to the future with renewed hope and wonder.

Critic reviews

'This memoir is a spark of hope to those who need it.'

'What could easily have been a heavy read is uplifted with Dietrich's quirky one-liners told with a big-hearted, Southern voice.'

Simply AMAZING!!

Having read the Sean of the South blog for a while, I finally got around to listening to Sean’s performance of this book. I laughed, I cried (REALLY cried), and finished the book in two days. Sean’s writing is just so real... no pretense. Just the simple things in life that really matter. Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m going to get the rest of his books.

A heartbreaking, heartwarming story

I loved every second of this book . The author is so genuine and honest, you love him instantly. He verbally illustrates the ugly side of life in a way that will bring you to tears , only to interrupt your sobs with your own laughter . He is sweet and funny as all get out. If you were raised Southern Baptist , you will feel like you are kin to him , if you weren’t, you’ll probably be more entertained than the rest of us , we’re used to it .

💯

Excellent ❤ Touched my heart... daughter of a suicide father... I laughed I cried... I sighed

One of the best audiobooks!

The story is so wonderful and being able to listen to the author tell it was such a gift!

Southern Storytelling it it’s best

Part stand up comedy, part survival story of a family. This book transports you to the Florida panhandle, Pike’s Peak and the church basement... Laughing and crying all the way.