Combining the soul-baring insight of the profound wisdom of , and the adventurous spirit of : Lynn Darlings powerful, lyrical memoir of self-discovery, full of warmth and wry humor, When her college-bound daughter leaves home, Lynn Darling, widowed over a decade earlier, finds herself aloneand utterly lost, with no idea of what she wants or even who she is. Searching for answers, she leaves New York for the solitary woods of Vermont. Removed from the familiar, cocooned in the natural world, her only companions a new dog and a compass, she hopes to develop a sense of directionboth in the woods and in her life.Hiking unmapped trails, Darling meditates on the milestones of her past; as she adapts to her new surroundings, she uses the knowledge shes gained to chart her future. And when an unexpected setback nearly derails her newfound balance, she is able to draw upon her newfound skills to find her bearings and stay the course.In revealing how one woman learned to navigateliterally and metaphoricallythe uneven course of life, is, in the words of Pulitzer-prize winning author Geraldine Brooks, a marvelous book . . . both a compass and a manifesto for navigating the often-treacherous switchbacks of the second half of life.