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

A woman details her attack by a grizzly bear, her battle for survival, the numerous reconstructive surgeries, the psychological turmoil that resulted from her disfigurement, and her struggle to put her life back together.

An extraordinary story of survival and recovery by a woman who was attacked by a grizzly bear.

On a sunny fall day in 1983, Patricia Van Tighem and her husband, Trevor, began a hiking trip in the Canadian Rockies with a two-thousand-foot climb through rocks and forest. The next morning, in a landscape dusted by snow, they crossed paths with a grizzly bear–and their lives were forever changed.

That Van Tighem survived at all is a miracle, and her account of the attack is vivid and startling. But her recovery was just as disturbing: Her numerous reconstructive surgeries were painful; her facial
disfigurement isolated her; and the nightmares that haunted her carried their own psychological burden. Yet she was eventually able to accept her unthinkable experiences, and to put her life back together as a survivor, a wife, and a mother.

With honesty and eloquence, The Bear’s Embrace tells of the unpredictability of life, of bravery, terror, rage and love, of what it means to look and feel different in a culture that values perfection. Uncommonly affecting, often astonishing, The Bear’s Embrace is an inspiring story of human
perseverance and self-knowledge.