Overview

A prolific poet as a child, Barbara Drake-Vera loved writing almost as much as she adored her father, a moody postal employee with an elaborate comb-over and a fondness for Mahler. But when her successes sparked his rage, Barbara silenced her voice for years, terrified even to see her name in print. By age forty-nine, she was a professional journalist living in Peru and collaborating with her husband, a Peruvian-born photographer, to report on melting glaciers in the Andes, far from the reach of her father. Melted Away recounts what happens after her father is diagnosed with advancing Alzheimer's and Barbara takes him into her home in Lima, beginning a process of self-discovery that uncovers a path toward personal and family healing. A diverse group of allies support her on this quest: a trio of caregiving women from the provinces, who serve as home-health aides; a mischievous, Cervantes-quoting, nonagenarian suitor; and a stubborn alpaca herder who lives beneath a long-worshipped, life-sustaining Andean glacier now melting from rapid climate change. Candid, poignant, and deeply researched, Melted Away is the true story of how a writer at midlife reclaims her agency, and an ardent plea to care for the planet by embracing collectivism and mutual aid.

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9780807181522

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Reviews

"From the New Jersey suburbs to the rapidly disappearing glaciers of the Peruvian Andes, Barbara Drake-Vera takes us on a personal journey of discovery. With her adept storytelling and brutally honest introspection, she helps humanize the pain of the unfolding climate crisis."" - Michael E. Mann, author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet ""Drake-Vera's wonderful memoir scales both the Andes and the towering mystery of how to care for an unlovable father. Melted Away is about compassion, for both a declining family member and a failing environment."" - Jill Ciment, author of The Body in Question ""An exquisite blend of memoir and environmental reporting from the precipice of the climate crisis."" - Cynthia Barnett, author of The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans"

"""An exquisite blend of memoir and environmental reporting from the precipice of the climate crisis.""--Cynthia Barnett, author of The Sound of the Sea: Seashells and the Fate of the Oceans ""Drake-Vera's wonderful memoir scales both the Andes and the towering mystery of how to care for an unlovable father. Melted Away is about compassion, for both a declining family member and a failing environment.""--Jill Ciment, author of The Body in Question ""From the New Jersey suburbs to the rapidly disappearing glaciers of the Peruvian Andes, Barbara Drake-Vera takes us on a personal journey of discovery. With her adept storytelling and brutally honest introspection, she helps humanize the pain of the unfolding climate crisis.""--Michael E. Mann, author of The New Climate War: The Fight to Take Back Our Planet"

Author Information

Barbara Drake-Vera is an award-winning fiction writer and journalist who lives in Gainesville, Florida. From 2007 to 2014, she resided in Peru, where she worked as a field producer for NBC Nightly News and the TODAY Show.

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