The Bear's Embrace: A Story of Survival - Softcover

"Overwhelmingly inspirational. . . . Van Tighem's story is a testament to human strength." --The Plain Dealer

"Van Tighem has written an important and bracing reminder of what it means to be vulnerable in a world that has little patience for vulnerability." --Los Angeles Times

"Beautifully crafted prose . . . . Van Tighem tells the story with grace and honesty." --Nashville Tennessean

"Compelling and even suspenseful." --Denver Post

"A literary marvel that describes the author's experience with clarity and immediacy, reflects on them with calmness and candor, and draws the reader into a world that, in less skillful hands, might easily repel or terrify." -The Globe and Mail

"Gripping. . . Addictive to read, impossible to put down. . . Extraordinary."-Vancouver Sun

"Brutally honest. Tremendously disturbing." -The Tacoma News Tribune

"Oddly compelling and suspenseful." -The Arizona Republic

"Harrowing and vivid, Van Tighem's narrative raises questions of random events and meaning, the bravery of surviving an attack, . . . as well as the healing power of telling and owning one's story."-Publishers Weekly

"Van Tighem's story is a testimony of courage." -Maclean's

"An unsparing chronicle of fear and suffering and the hard-won courage that beat it all."-Kirkus Reviews

A woman describes her 1983 close encounter with a grizzly bear on a hiking trip in the Canadian Rockies, detailing the attack, her battle for survival, the numerous painful reconstructive surgeries, the isolation and psychological turmoil that resulted from her disfiguring facial injuries, and her long and difficult struggle to put her life back together. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.