"You're going to have a lot of work to do when I'm gone," Nick Rowswell's mother tells him in the last days of her life. She's right. In a world where millions can die at the touch of a button, erasing one woman's presence from the world is remarkably complicated.
As Nick begins the process of wrapping up his mother's life-her physical remains, her worldly possessions, her administrative existence-he realizes that he never truly knew her.
We know our parents only through the stories they tell-the carefully chosen and well-doctored anecdotes that show them in a positive or humorous light. We never know the truth. Nick sets out to find that truth and to discover who his mother was when she wasn't being a parent. In doing so, he takes a bittersweet journey through his family's past, and comes to understand how that past affects his own future.
Funny, poignant, and revealing, Ashes for Salmon is both a memoir and a revealing look at how we handle death. We're driven to give meaning to life, even when our loved ones may end their journey in the belly of a prize Scottish salmon.
About the Author: Fast approaching the wrong side of fifty, Nick Rowswell has spent the last twenty-six years in Bourges, France, a rural town two hours south of Paris. There, he's worked as an English teacher, a freelance journalist, an interpreter, and a translator.
A longtime expatriate who's lived in France more than in England, Nick isn't sure which nationality applies to him. Thanks to his partner of twenty-seven years-the fair Nadine-and his teenage daughter, he manages to belong to both countries.
Nick spends his free time as a singer and harmonica player in a mildly successful "Saturday night" amateur rock band. He also enjoys photography, obscure history books, and collapsing into an armchair after a long day to watch some mindless television. Ashes for Salmon is Nick's first book, but hopefully not his last.
