Author(s): Aspen Matis

Biography & Memoir

From Aspen Matis, author of the acclaimed true story Girl in the Woods, comes a bold and atmospheric memoir of a woman who--in searching for her vanished husband--discovers deeper purpose.

Aspen's and Justin's paths serendipitously aligned on the Pacific Crest Trail when both were walking from Mexico to Canada, separately and alone--both using thru-hiking in hopes of escaping their pasts. Both sought to redefine themselves beneath the stars. By the time they made it to the snowy Cascade Range of British Columbia--the trail's end--Aspen and Justin were in love.

Embarking on a new pilgrimage the next summer, they returned to those same mossy mountains where they'd met, and they married. They built a world together, three years of a happy marriage. Until a cold November morning, when, after kissing Aspen goodbye, Justin left to attend the funeral of a close friend.

He never came back. As days became weeks, her husband's inexplicable absence left Aspen unmoored. Shock, grief, fear, and anger battled for control--but nothing prepared her for the disarming truth. A revelation that would lead Aspen to reassess not only her own life but that of the disappeared as well.

The result is a brave and inspiring memoir of secrets kept and unearthed, of a vanishing that became a gift: a woman's empowering reclamation of unmitigated purpose in the surreal wake of mystifying loss.