Wander Home
Karen A. Wyle, 2012
Createspace
277 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781481167093
Summary
Death is what you make it. . . .
Eleanor never wanted to leave the daughter she loved so much. The overpowering urge to wander—to search, without knowing what she sought—drove her away. She left little Cassidy in her family's loving care. But Cassidy and the others died in an accident before Eleanor could find her way home.
Now, they are all reunited, in an afterlife where nothing is truly lost. Places once loved may be revisited, memories relived and even shared. One may be any age suitable to the mood and moment. Surely this is a place where Eleanor and her family can understand and heal. But some of the memories haunting Eleanor are of dreams she had tried to forget.
Somehow, she must solve the mystery of her life—or none of them will be at peace. (From the publisher.)
Author Bio
• Birth—August 4, 1955
• Where—Hartford, Connecticut, USA
• Education—B.A. Stanford University; J.D., Harvard Law
• Currently— Monroe County, east of Bloomington, Indiana
Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but moved every few years throughout her childhood and adolescence. After college in California, law school in Massachusetts, and a mercifully short stint in a large San Francisco law firm, she moved to Los Angeles. There she met her husband, who hates L.A. They eventually settled near Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University.
Wyle has been a voracious and compulsive reader as long as she can remember. She majored in English and American Literature major at Stanford University, which suited her, although she has in recent years developed some doubts about whether studying literature is, for most people, a good preparation for enjoying it.
Wyle's voice is the product of almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction. It is no doubt also influenced, although she hopes not fatally tainted, by her years of practicing appellate law. Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family, communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence of unfinished business.
In addition to Wander Home, Wyle has published two science fiction novels, Twin-Bred, Reach: a Twin-Bred Novel, and several short stories. She is currently in the process of revising another science fiction novel, Division, dealing with some unusual issues raised by the possibility of human cloning. She is also writing a nonfiction guide to law and lawyers, for the use of authors whose fiction involves the courtroom or other legal proceedings. (From the author.)
Visit Karen's website.
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Book Reviews
A story about the consequences of the choices we make, and the difficulty even we can have in understanding – and living with – the reach of those consequences. Wyle’s...vision of the afterlife...is one of the loveliest.... Wyle has a lovely way with language, weaving characters and setting together into a seamless tapestry.... A beautiful story, well-written and smoothly paced with characters you can’t help but fall in love with.
Jill Elizabeth - All Things Jill-Elizabeth
Wyle should be proud of the opening scene of this book as it showcases...her descriptive powers.... I love the way the concept of an afterlife is made real in Karen’s book, and the way the various characters inter-relate, re-live moments and re-visit places in their history.... Wander Home acts acts like a large, soft comfort blanket. But don’t get too comfortable. It is a barbed comfort blanket, charged with emotion. An excellent read, which I heartily recommend.
Indie Tribe - Charlie Bray
The plot is well paced and opens the imagination of the readers. The afterlife that Wyle creates is brimming with memories, places to visit, and amazing people to meet. It's written in such a way that it is truly life after death.... Wander Home is a magical story that delves to the depths of the human psyche and is definitely recommended.
Coffee Pot - Tracy Kiser
The story itself dwells on a common theme—a daughter in search of a mother’s love, a mother who so longs to provide that love but feels inadequate in face of her own search for self and a family who provides them unconditional support. The uniqueness is in the telling.... The story inspires one to stretch the imagination.... If this were a motion picture, one would be feasting in never-ending sights and sounds, visions that only the imagination can conjure.
Readers' Favorite - Teresita Rivera
[A] bittersweet story of one family’s journey both on earth and in the afterlife as they struggle to make sense out of relationships, personalities and love, for love is what the book is ultimately about.... Wyle has created characters so full of personality that you are drawn to them and really want the issues to be resolved. Amanda (Great Grandmother), Sarah and Jack, Eleanor and Cassidy are people you will remember for a long time to come.
Linda Leander - L.Leander's Reviews and Interviews
Discussion Questions
1. Does this novel have a hero or heroine? If so, who is it?
2. Is Eleanor unduly slow to realize what role Mateo and Jordana have played in her life?
3. Did Eleanor have any viable choices other than those she made in her life? Was there a way for her to play the hand she was dealt without causing so much pain?
4. Is the resolution of this story satisfying? Is it fair to all the characters?
5. Some people who come to Wander Home’s afterlife have hurt others during their lifetime. Do you think there is a degree of evil or wrong-doing that would prevent a person from reaching this afterlife? What might happen to those people, within the world created by the novel?
6. Concerning the technique of flooding troubled newcomers with happy memories to help them heal: what memories might you contribute?
7. This book features several married couples (Jack and Sarah, Amanda and Stan, Mateo and Jordana, Jordana’s parents). How do these couples demonstrate different approaches to the married state? Which marriages are the most successful, and why?
8. Do you wish you knew more about the life story of any character in the novel?
9. Could you imagine using the features of this afterlife to resolve any unfinished business from your own life, and if so, how?
10. Whether or not you believe in an afterlife, would you like the afterlife presented in this book to exist?
11. Does the afterlife in Wander Home correspond to any afterlife depicted by any established religion?
(Questions courtesy of the author.)