Description
Book SynopsisIn the summer of 1994, a freak lightning and thunder storm explodes on the southern coast of Maine, killing Nancy Bills’s husband and critically wounding her younger son. She promises her late husband that she will write their family’s story and bind it with a red ribbon of love and courage.
In language alternately tender and gritty,
The Red Ribbon documents the aftermath of Bills’s husband’s death. As a wife, she grieves and attempts to rebuild her life; as a mother, she strains to be the parent her young adult sons need. Then, one year later, she is faced with more loss—this time, the father whom she adores. After his death, other deaths, some anticipated and others unpredictable, follow. Meanwhile, the impending death of her aging mother is a particular challenge; Nancy struggles to be a good daughter, and on many visits to Montana, her home state, she tries to mend their painful history.
Insightful, moving, and full of intelligence and humanity,
The Red Ribbon is a story of surviving the many and often devastating lightning strikes of life, and a gift of compassion and wisdom for readers who are struggling with their own losses.
Trade Review2019 Kirkus Reviews' Best Indie Book Awards—Best Indie Biographies & Memoirs 2019 Foreword Indies Honorable Mention in Adult Non-Fiction: Grief/Grieving 2020 Eric Hoffer First Horizon Award Finalist
2020 Eric Hoffer Award Honorable Mention in Memoir “Memoirs of loss and survival are rather common, but what sets this one apart is Bills’ extraordinary perceptiveness and writing talent. . . . A keeper of a book by a talented author.”
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Kirkus Reviews, starred review
“A must-read for anyone dealing with loss.”
—Hollis Gillespie, best-selling author and award-winning syndicated humor columnist
“I highly recommend this book; it is both heartbreaking and uplifting . . . a real tour de force!”
—Christine Linnehan, MS, LCPC, FT, psychotherapist at Riverview Counseling and consultant for Center for Grieving Children
“Achingly beautiful.”
—Barbara Hesselman Kautz, MSN, RN, author of
When I Die I’m Going to Heaven ‘Cause I Spent My Time in Hell: A Memoir of My Year as an Army Nurse in Vietnam “Nancy’s voice in The Red Ribbon is direct and beautifully sustained right through to the end, and her language, both fresh and arresting, documents the fragility such a blow inflicts; her work is infused with pain and grace moving into emotional country most fear to explore. She shares generously the truth of her experience, and the reader is stunned, brought to tears, and needs to be reminded to breathe. Her memoir is an amazing accomplishment offering help and hope to others suffering losses. Nancy’s memoir reveals a brave effort to stay focused and steady when facing an ultimate horror.
The Red Ribbon is the product of a years-long struggle for meaning, the gradual construction of her myth, and a clear vision of an experience fully understood in the broader human context. It is a triple whammy.”
—Walden S. Morton, editor of
KALEIDOSCOPE and a finalist for the Maine Writers and Publishers Alliance 2017 Maine Literary Award for Anthology
