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Travelling with Ghosts

An intimate and inspiring journey

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About this listen

 In the summer of 2002, Shannon Leone Fowler, a twenty-eight-year-old marine biologist, was backpacking with her Australian fiancé Sean in Thailand. They were planning to return to Australia after their excursion to Koh Pha Ngan, but their plans were tragically derailed when a box jellyfish - the most venomous animal in the world - wrapped around Sean's leg, stinging and killing him in minutes as Shannon helplessly watched. Rejecting the Thai authorities attempt to label the death 'drunk drowning,' Shannon ferried his body home to his stunned family - a family to which she suddenly no longer belonged.

Shattered and untethered, Shannon set out on a journey to make sense of her loss. From Oswiecim, Poland (the site of Auschwitz) to war-torn Israel, shelled-out Bosnia, poverty-stricken Romania, and finally to Barcelona, where she first met Sean years before, Shannon charts a path through sorrow towards recovery.

Read by Rachel Dulude

(p) 2017 Tantor©2017 Shannon Leone Fowler Adventurers, Explorers & Survival Grief & Loss Personal Development Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships War

Critic reviews

A heartbreaking story about the randomness of tragedy told with great courage and tenacity (Ruth Ozeki, author of A Tale for Time Being)
Like Cheryl Strayed's Wild, Fowler makes us feel that a hero's journey is our only hope for surviving grief. Traveling with Ghosts is a brave and necessary record of love, as beautiful as it is heart-breaking (Ann Patchett, author of Bel Canto and State of Wonder)
A cross between H is for Hawk and Wild, this beautifully written tale follows Fowler's travels through Eastern Europe after her fiance was killed by a jellyfish
A rich and absorbing memoir that shows the reader what it feels like to lose your future in a matter of seconds in a faraway land . . . Shannon learns to travel on, to get back in the ocean and to build a new life (Cathy Rentzenbrink)
Gloriously rendered, beautifully written, but utterly devastating ... an intimate and inspiring experience . . . balm to the soul, as well as being a necessary witness account of the blackest depths of grief (Viv Groskop)
[A] courageous memoir of love and loss... compelling. (Caroline Sanderson)
A searing memoir [that] celebrates a life cut short, a love never given a chance to grow, and a process of recovery bravely illustrating that while life after tragedy goes on, the chilly fingers of grief touch us in a way that mark us forever (Elizabeth George, author of the Inspector Lynley Mysteries)
A courageous and finely crafted account soaked in tears of love and loss
Fowler has turned her devastating, beautiful, honest, and personal story into something universal. Akin to Cheryl Strayed's Wild, her book will appeal to globetrotters and readers of hopeful stories chronicling grief and recovery
Heartbreaking but beautiful, Traveling With Ghosts is the story of Shannon Leone Fowler's travels around the world after her fiancé's unexpected death. She brings us along as she drifts from one place to the next, weaving in memories from their time together as well. As much as this is a tale of grief and loss, it's one of love, too.
A moving account ... This is a nicely written and informative journey on the path to healing
[Fowler's] various journeys - through grief, through areas of the world few experience, and through memories of adventures that made her who she was and Sean who he was -- are movingly and honestly told . . . Her story -- rich, unblinking and adroitly told -- is one of strength, of getting past but not getting over. Few would choose the approach Fowler took to kick-start healing. But hers is a thought-provoking journey that she generously shares (Sharon Peters)
All stars
Most relevant
Colourful depiction of a dark tale. Emotive like innocent infants caught up in terrorist aggression.

Tear provoking

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although the story is incredibly sad the description of her story and how she learned to live with the grief is very gripping and it is hard to put the book down for a break. the narrator is fantastic and has a very pleasant voice

sad but very moving

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