Unmoored, J. R. Roessl
Unmoored, J. R. Roessl
List: $19.95 | Sale: $13.97
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Unmoored
Coming of Age in Troubled Waters

Author: J. R. Roessl

Narrator: J. R. Roessl

Unabridged: 10 hr 8 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/01/2023

Includes: Bonus Material Bonus Material Included

Synopsis

It’s the sixties. Everything’s groovy. Teenagers bask in the freedom of a country transformed. Counterculture is on the rise, and the times, they-are-a-changing. Everything, that is, except the author’s young life. She doesn’t swoon for the Beatles or scream for the Stones. She doesn’t protest the Vietnam War or fight for women’s rights. Instead, from age seven to sixteen, she accompanies her father to a dilapidated barn on the edge of a dusty little town located on the outskirts of San Francisco, where she works after school, on weekends, and summers building a ship that is supposed to set her free. It is her father’s promise of one day sailing the ocean on a three-year, around-the-world adventure that keeps her going. With the sixties and teenage torment as a backdrop, Unmoored is the parallel story of growth and redemption through the travails of a forty-four-foot schooner and the girl who helped guide it through storms, fire, near destitution and, ultimately, disaster, notwithstanding coping with a cold and moody father. But in the end, she learns that “Heritage’s worth, like ours, is not measured in terms of where she landed nor by what others thought of her, but in the attempt to get somewhere better than where she’d started. In that, she succeeded, and by default, so did we.”

About J. R. Roessl

For more than thirty years, J. R. Roessl traveled the world, working as a model and commercial actor, before settling in the Hudson Valley to raise her family. She is a graduate of New York University, where she studied creative writing; Unmoored is her debut memoir. She currently resides with her husband and daughter in Pittsburgh. You can connect with J. R. Roessl through Facebook (@jrroessl), Instagram (@jr.roessl), and her website, JRRoessl.com. To contact J. R. for book club events or speaking engagements, you can reach her through her website.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Willisbeth

I was privileged to receive an advance reader copy of “Unmoored: Coming of Age in Troubled Waters,” by J.R. Roessl.  In this engaging memoir, J.R. vividly recalls her teen-age years growing up in a dysfunctional family with a tyrant for a father, whose dream is to build a boat and sail around the wo......more

Goodreads review by Becka

I was totally blown away by J.R. Roessl’s account of her teen years spent on the water, in a sailboat she and her sisters helped her father build. Her sometimes harrowing account reminded me of “The Old Man and the Sea,” “Moby Dick,” and “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.” I am an advance reader for R......more

Goodreads review by Rosalyn

Unmoored quickly captivated me in the first few paragraphs, it was hard to put down until I finished it. The story was very gripping - I truly felt the fear, loneliness and adrenaline of living through such a precarious adventure aboard a very cramped vessel. I loved the author’s vulnerability throu......more

Goodreads review by Jean

As a devoted reader of memoirs, I took my sweet time with the advanced reader copy of J.R. Roessl's Unmoored. This isn't just another coming of age story, it's that and beyond because its setting is in the most challenging of places - a sailboat with a narcissistic father, his fearful wife and their......more

Goodreads review by Diana

I confess I'm not a sailor, so I wondered if Unmoored would capture my attention. But it definitely did and way more! JR's reflections and observations about her challenging adventure and semi-confinement with her family in a small boat mixed with details about sailing and seamanship made for an abs......more

Quotes

“The fantasy of sailing a beautiful homebuilt schooner around the world obsesses a troubled father in this gritty memoir recounting how a brave sixteen-year-old, her mother, and her sisters crewed Heritage, a vessel that would become a crucible of overcoming.” Toby Neal, author of Freckled: A Memoir of Growing Up Wild in Hawaii

“An urgent voice, ironic sense of humor, and a beautiful ear for dialogue.’” Michael Zam, writer/co-creator of Feud: Bette and Joan

“Turns the traditional family sailing saga on its head. Months of hardship at sea don’t coalesce into emotional bonds. Instead, as a sixteen year old, the author faces down the truth that she must dig deep within herself to untether from a splintered family dream veering disastrously off course.” Cynthia Barrett, author of Three Sheets to the Wind

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