In this beautifully written, vividly
detailed memoir, a young woman chronicles her adventures in an orange
van named Bertha traveling across the deserts of the American West and
reflects on an unconventional way of life
A woman defined by motion, Brianna Madia bought a beat-up bright orange van, filled it with her two dogs Bucket and Dagwood, and headed into the canyons of Utah with her husband on a journey of discovery. Nowhere for Very Long is her story of exploration--of the world outside and the spirit within. From the backroads to the breakdowns, married to solo, lost to found, it is the chronicle of a woman in the wild, learning and unlearning.
Brianna knew her road would be the one less traveled from an early age. Rejecting the competitive and capitalistic path set out before her, she chose to seek a truer version of happiness, a road scary, uncertain, and entirely her own. But pursing a life of intention isn't always what it seems. In fact, at times it was downright boring, exhausting, lonely, and even desperate----when the van overheated and she was forced to pull over on a lonely stretch of Wyoming highway; when the weather was bitterly cold and the water jugs froze beneath her we she slept in the parking lot of her office; when she faced tough choices, hard truths, and inevitable regrets; when she worried about money, her marriage, and the looming question mark of her future. But this life was a life of her choosing and that made all the difference.
Nowhere for Very Long isn't about extreme minimalism or tiny house living or #VanLife. It's about cherishing the moment and being a woman living a life true to herself, come what may.
A woman defined by motion, Brianna Madia bought a beat-up bright orange van, filled it with her two dogs Bucket and Dagwood, and headed into the canyons of Utah with her husband on a journey of discovery. Nowhere for Very Long is her story of exploration--of the world outside and the spirit within. From the backroads to the breakdowns, married to solo, lost to found, it is the chronicle of a woman in the wild, learning and unlearning.
Brianna knew her road would be the one less traveled from an early age. Rejecting the competitive and capitalistic path set out before her, she chose to seek a truer version of happiness, a road scary, uncertain, and entirely her own. But pursing a life of intention isn't always what it seems. In fact, at times it was downright boring, exhausting, lonely, and even desperate----when the van overheated and she was forced to pull over on a lonely stretch of Wyoming highway; when the weather was bitterly cold and the water jugs froze beneath her we she slept in the parking lot of her office; when she faced tough choices, hard truths, and inevitable regrets; when she worried about money, her marriage, and the looming question mark of her future. But this life was a life of her choosing and that made all the difference.
Nowhere for Very Long isn't about extreme minimalism or tiny house living or #VanLife. It's about cherishing the moment and being a woman living a life true to herself, come what may.
260 pages (April 2022)
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