Product Description

A New York Times Bestseller and 2007 Book Sense Selection

Meredith Hall's moving but unsentimental memoir begins in 1965, when she becomes pregnant at sixteen. Shunned by her insular New Hampshire community, she is then kicked out of the house by her mother. Her father and stepmother reluctantly take her in, hiding her before they finally banish her altogether. After giving her baby up for adoption, Hall wanders recklessly through the Middle East. She returns to New England and stitches together a life that encircles her silenced and invisible grief. When he is twenty-one, her lost son finds her. Hall learns that he grew up in gritty poverty with an abusive father—in her own father's hometown. Their reunion is tender, turbulent, and ultimately redemptive. What sets Without a Map apart is the way in which loss and betrayal evolve into compassion, and compassion into wisdom.

"Hall emerges as a brave writer of tumultuous beauty."
—Alanna Nash, Entertainment Weekly

"First-time author Hall pens a haunting meditation on love, loss, and family . . . Hall colors outside the lines with this memoir, full of unexpected twists and turns."
—Caroline Leavitt, People (rated 4 out of 4 stars)

"Beautifully rendered."
—Elle (a nonfiction readers' pick)

"A modern-day Scarlet Letter."
—Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times

"A poignant, unflinchingly assured memoir . . . exquisite."
—Robert Braile, Boston Globe

"Meredith Hall's magnificent book held me in its thrall from the moment I began reading the opening pages . . . a fluid, beautifully written, hard-won piece of work that belongs on the shelf next to the best modern memoirs."
—Dani Shapiro, author of Black and White

"An unusually elegant memoir that feels as though it's been carved straight out of Meredith Hall's capacious heart. The story is riveting, the words perfect."
—Lauren Slater, author of Welcome to My Country and Opening Skinner's Box

"Hall's memoir is a sobering portrayal of how punitive her close-knit New Hampshire community was in 1965 when, at the age of 16, she became pregnant in the course of a casual summer romance . . . Hall offers a testament to the importance of understanding and even forgiving the people who, however unconscious or unkind, have made us who we are."
—Francine Prose, O Magazine

"Meredith Hall's long journey from an inexcusably betrayed girlhood to the bittersweet mercies of womanhood is a triple triumph-of survival; of narration; and of forgiveness. Without a Map is a masterpiece."
—David James Duncan, author of The Brothers K and God Laughs and Plays

"Each chapter of Without a Map is polished and elegantly written . . . the structure is shapely and the book yields poignant insights."
—Juliet Wittman, Washington Post

"Hall's memoir, Without a Map, is a devastating story of what happens when a person is exiled from her own life."
—Frances Lefkowitz, Body + Soul

"I'm awed by Meredith Hall's wisdom and integrity, by her gorgeous prose that deepens my understanding of resilience and love, of loss and forgiveness. A courageous and brilliant memoir."
—Ursula Hegi, author of The Worst Thing I've Done

"Without a Map tells an important and perceptive story about loss, about aloneness and isolation in a time of great need, about a life slowly coming back into focus and the calm that finally emerges. Meredith Hall is a brave new writer who earns our attention."
—Annie Dillard, author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and For the Time Being

"Elegant pprosed make Without a Map an evocative, thought-provoking read. But Hall's heartrending candor on love, loss and hope turn this first-time author's book into a one-sided coversation among new friends."
—Jennifer DeCamp, St. Petersburg Times

"A compelling, painful, hopeful story."
—Barbara Jones, More Magazine

"Without a Map tells a stunning story of exile and ostracization . . . Her memoir is a rare and clear glimpse into the social mores of the mid '60s, and reveals the state of shame many families faced when an unmarried daughter became pregnant."
—Liz Bulkley, The Front Porch, NHPR

"An unbelievable read."
—Robin Young, Here and Now, NPR

"Meredith Hall's memoir is so well written that it was hard for me to accept that the book had to end."
—Tina Ristau, Des Moines Register

"Painfully honest and beautifully written . . . Meredith Hall has managed to distill courage from raw pain, and then somehow write this gem of a book about the experience . . . A stunning book . . . You must read it."
—Lola Furber, Maine Women's Journal

"Meredith Hall is like a Geiger counter ticking along the radium edge of these recent decades. She gives us self as expert witness—Without a Map is smart, sharp, and redemptively honest."
—Sven Birkerts, author of The Gutenberg Elegies and My Sky Blue Trades

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4948 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-15
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

From Publishers Weekly
It was 1965 when Hall was expelled from her New Hampshire high school, shunned by all her friends, made to leave her mother's home, and kept hidden from sight in her father's house—all because she was a sexually naïve 16-year-old, pregnant by a college boy who wasn't all that interested in her anyway. And in this memoir, chapters of which have been published in magazines, Hall narrates this bittersweet tale of loss. After childbirth her baby was put up for adoption so fast, she never had even a glimpse of him. She finished high school at a nearby boarding school, then soon wandered to Europe and eventually found herself just walking, alone, from country to country. Somewhere in the Middle East she scraped bottom and repatriated herself. She accumulated another lover and had two children, before her first son, the one she was forced to abandon, made contact. Making peace with him was deeply healing. This painful memoir builds to a quiet resolution, as Hall comes to grips with her own aging, the complexities of forgiveness and the continuity of life. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
In 1965, Hall, called Meredy, becomes pregnant at 16. Four-and-a-half months later, maternal instincts kick in. She pauses before doing a somersault in gym class, and her secret is exposed. Expelled from school, she is shunned by her small New Hampshire community and turned away by her mother. Sent to live with her father and his chilly new wife, she hides upstairs while they have dinner parties, waiting out her pregnancy like a prison term. This rousing memoir tells the story of how Meredy was forced to give her baby up for adoption (was, in fact, drugged during labor to prevent any contact at all) and pushed into a vagabond existence. She lives on a boat, wanders penniless around the Middle East, and eventually settles in Maine. Divorced and raising two young children, she gets a phone call: her son is found. Written in spare, unsentimental prose, Without a Map is stunning; Meredy's reunion with her grown son (who was raised in poverty with an abusive father) is the highlight. Book groups, take note. Emily Cook
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Hall emerges as a brave writer of tumultuous beauty." —Alanna Nash (Entertainment Weekly )

"First-time author Hall pens a haunting meditation on love, loss, and family . . . Hall colors outside the lines with this memoir, full of unexpected twists and turns." —Caroline Leavitt, (rated 4 out of 4 stars) (People Magazine )

"Beautifully rendered." (Elle )

"A poignant, unflinchingly assured memoir . . . exquisite." —Robert Braile (Boston Globe )

"Each chapter of Without a Map is polished and elegantly written…the structure is shapely and the book yields poignant insights." (The Washington Post )

"Without a Map, is so well written that it was hard for me to accept that the book had to end."

"Hall, a brave and graceful writer who teaches at UNH, examines her life with wide open eyes and an equally open heart. Even as she wrestles with the grief of many losses—her child, her parents' love and respect, her standing in her community, her identity—she demonstrates the writer's gift of separating from her own experiences, establishing an objectivity that allows her to make meaning for herself and readers."

Customer Reviews

Could not get into this book.
Did not like it. Writer seems to bounce from story to story. I could not really get into this book and ended up reading two other books in between. This book will probably end up on my yard sale box:(

Without a Map
Without a Map: A Memoir Meredith Hall is so young and so unprepared for motherhood at the age of sixteen. In 1965 pregnancy out of marriage was so taboo. No one came to this girl's assistance. Everyone shunned her - parents, school, community and church. She has spent her whole adult life searching and the events of her life are forever influenced by that incident. This book lends iself to discussions of so many topics( relationships, identity, the sixties vs the present, adoption, and survival to name only a few.

without a map
without a Map, captured how some women live their lives wondering every secound what happened to their child which was given up for adoptions.