Driven
A White-Knuckled Ride to Heartbreak and Back; A Memoir

A searing memoir about one womans road to hope following the death of her troubled brother, told through the series of cars that accompanied her on her journeyGrowing up in a blue-collar family in the Midwest, Melissa Stephenson longed for escape. Her wanderlust was an innate reaction to the powerful personalities around her and came, too, from her desire to find a place in the world where her artistic ambitions wouldnt be thwarted. She found in automobiles the promise of a future beyond Indiana state lines.From a lineage of secondhand family cars of the late 60s, to the Honda that carried her from Montana to Texas as her new marriage disintegrated, the 70s Ford she drove away from her brothers house after he took his lifeleaving her the truck, a dog, and a few mixed tapesand the VW van she now uses to take her kids camping, Melissa knows these cars better than she knows some of the people closest to her. Driven away from grief and toward hope, Melissa reckons with what it means to lose a beloved sibling.Driven is a powerful story of healingone for all who have had to look back at pain to see how they can now move forward.