Travelling with Ghosts: A Memoir of Love and Loss

In the summer of 2002 Shannon Leone Fowler was backpacking with her fiance Sean in Thailand. The couple were planning to return home after their excursion to the island of Koh Pha Ngan but their plans were devastated when a box jellyfish - the most venomous animal in the world - wrapped itself around Sean's legs stinging and killing him in minutes. Rejecting the Thai authorities' attempt to label Sean's death as 'drunk drowning' Shannon accompanied his body home to his stunned family - a family to which she suddenly no longer belonged. Shattered untethered and alone Shannon set out on a journey to make sense of her loss. From contemplating the silence of Auschwitz to learning the rules for sitting shiva amid daily bombings in Israel to finding humour and creativity in Sarajevo a city still scarred by the recent war Shannon charts a path through sorrow towards recovery. Traveling with Ghosts is a beautiful memorial to love and an intensely personal account of learning to live with grief. It is the story of a brave journey towards survival.