A true story about the ways loss can transform us into the people we
want to become.
Laurel Braitman spent her childhood learning how to outfish grown men,
keep bees, and fix carburetors from her larger-than-life dad. Diagnosed
with terminal cancer, he went to spectacular lengths to teach her the
skills she'd need to survive without him. But by her mid-thirties she is
a ship about to splinter on the rocks, exhausted by running from her own
bad feelings. We follow as Laurel changes course, navigating multiple
wildernesses--from northern New Mexico and western Alaska to her own
Tinder app. She learns the hard way that no achievement, no matter how
shiny, can protect her from pain, and works to transform guilt and
regret into gold: learning from a badass birder in the Bering Sea, a few
dozen grieving kids in a support group, a pile of smoking ashes, and
countless online dates. Along the way, she faces a wildfire that
threatens everyone and everything she cares about, a grueling test of
her own survival skills, and the fact that we often have to say our
hardest goodbyes before we're ready. In the end Laurel realizes that
being open to love after loss is not only possible, it can set us free.
What Looks Like Bravery is a hero's journey for our times. Laurel
teaches us that hope is a form of courage, one that can work as an all-
purpose key to the locked doors of your dreams.
