Crossing the River

A Life in Brazil

This title was previously available on NetGalley and is now archived.
Buy on Amazon Buy on BN.com Buy on Bookshop.org
*This page contains affiliate links, so we may earn a small commission when you make a purchase through links on our site at no additional cost to you.
Send NetGalley books directly to your Kindle or Kindle app

1
To read on a Kindle or Kindle app, please add kindle@netgalley.com as an approved email address to receive files in your Amazon account. Click here for step-by-step instructions.
2
Also find your Kindle email address within your Amazon account, and enter it here.
Pub Date Oct 27 2015 | Archive Date Oct 27 2015

Description

Overwhelmed with the fast-paced, competitive lifestyle of modern America, Amy Ragsdale moved with her husband, writer Peter Stark, and their two teenage children to a small town in northeastern Brazil, where she hoped they would learn the value of a slower life. In this culturally rich and economically poor region, Amy and her family learn to fundamentally connect with their neighbors across language and customs. In the year they spend there, Amy grows close to her new neighbors, from the men who cut sugar cane and kill chickens to the clinical university student, as they became the family’s guides to Brazilian life.

Elegantly written and vibrant in detail, Crossing the River tells a nuanced global story through a personal memoir, examining life without the trappings of modern American culture, and revealing surprising truths about identity, family, and love.

Overwhelmed with the fast-paced, competitive lifestyle of modern America, Amy Ragsdale moved with her husband, writer Peter Stark, and their two teenage children to a small town in northeastern...


A Note From the Publisher

Amy Ragsdale is a writer and choreographer who was raised in Madison, Wisconsin, Asia, and North Africa. She earned a BA in art history from Harvard College and an MALS from Wesleyan. Her articles on travel and dance have appeared in High Desert Journal, Mamalode, and Outside Magazine Online, where she initiated the column Raising Rippers.

Amy has taught contemporary dance in Spain, Indonesia, Martinique, Mozambique, and Brazil. She is the founder of Headwaters Dance Co., the recipient of the University of Montana's Distinguished Teaching Award, and a 2009 Governor's Arts Award for the State of Montana.

She is married to writer Peter Stark. They live in Missoula, Montana, with two fabulous children, an imperious cat, and an enthusiastic puppy.

Amy Ragsdale is a writer and choreographer who was raised in Madison, Wisconsin, Asia, and North Africa. She earned a BA in art history from Harvard College and an MALS from Wesleyan. Her articles on...


Advance Praise

"Dancer and choreographer Amy Ragsdale set off with her family for a year's adventure in rural Brazil as an antidote to her overachieving super-mom life. Balance and joy were at the heart of her quest, and balance and joy are her gifts to us in this keen-eyed, candid, transformative story. Her journey is a gift to her readers. Her spirit is a model to follow."
—Annick Smith, author of Homestead

"By means of bravery and an extrasensory ability to let what happens happen, Amy Ragsdale and her family left the ordinariness of American life and moved to small-town, rural Brazil, where magical realism is nonfiction walking up the the street. The details of this book—eight-foot-long fish whose scales are used as fingernail files, a hotel called Hotel God Gave Me—will rock you, and the story of what the family went through is powerfully moving. An exciting and revelatory book, a delight to read."
—Ian Frazier, bestselling author of Travels in Siberia

"Dancer and choreographer Amy Ragsdale set off with her family for a year's adventure in rural Brazil as an antidote to her overachieving super-mom life. Balance and joy were at the heart of her...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781580055864
PRICE $16.00 (USD)

Average rating from 5 members


Readers who liked this book also liked: