I Found My Tribe: a memoir by Ruth Fitzmaurice

A transformative, euphoric memoir about finding solace in the unexpected for readers of H is for Hawk, It's Not Yet Dark, and When Breath Becomes Air.

Ruth's tribe are her lively children and her filmmaker and author husband Simon Fitzmaurice who has ALS and can only communicate with his eyes. Ruth's other "tribe" are the friends who gather at the cove in Greystones, Co. Wicklow, and regularly throw themselves into the freezing cold water, just for kicks.

The Tragic Wives' Swimming Club, as they jokingly call themselves, meet to cope with the extreme challenges life puts in their way, not to mention the monster waves rolling over the horizon. Swimming is just one of the daily coping strategies as Ruth fights to preserve the strong but now silent connection with her husband. As she tells the story of their marriage, from diagnosis to their long-standing precarious situation, Ruth also charts her passion for swimming in the wild Irish Sea--culminating in a midnight swim under the full moon on her wedding anniversary.

An invocation to all of us to love as hard as we can, and live even harder, I Found My Tribe is an urgent and uplifting letter to a husband, family, friends, the natural world, and the brightness of life.

213 pages (March 2018)

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Reading Guide from BookMovement.

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Discussion Guide from Bloomsbury Publishing

 

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Review from The Guardian

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Author Interview with the journal

Ruth Fitzmaurice discusses the first time she showed the manuscript to her husband:

Title Read-alikes: The Journal of Best Practices by David Finch; The Vow by Kim Carpenter; Beauty in the Broken Places by Allison Pataki; Until I Say Good-Bye by Susan Spencer-Wendel; Wondering Who You Are by Sonya Lea; Jan's Story by Barry Petersen; Everybody's Got Something by Robin Roberts; The Bright Hour by Nina Riggs; The Cookie Cure by Susan Stachler; The Smallest Lights in the Universe by Sara Seager; Late in the Day by Tessa Hadley; After the Silence by Louise O'Neill; and Elsewhere by Rosita Boland.