A Walk with Jane Austen: A Journey into Adventure, Love, and Faith by Lori Smith

From the Publisher

Step into a Life of Grace
At thirty-three, dealing with a difficult job and a creeping depression, Lori Smith embarked on a life-changing journey following the life and lore of Jane Austen through England.
With humor and spirit, Lori leads readers through landscapes Jane knew and loved-from Bath and Lyme, to London and the Hampshire countryside-and through emotional landscapes in which grace and hope take the place of stagnation and despair. Along the way, Lori explores the small things, both meanness and goodness in relationships, to discover what Austen herself knew: the worth of an ordinary life.

Publishers Weekly

In this engaging, deeply personal and well-researched travelogue, Smith (a PWcontributor) journeys to England to soak in the places of Jane Austen's life and writings. The book is sure to ride the wave of Austen-philia that has recently swept through Hollywood and a new generation of Americans, but this is an unusual look at Jane Austen. Readers will learn plenty of biographical details-about Austen's small and intimate circle of family and friends, her candid letters to her sister, her possible loves and losses, her never-married status, her religious feelings, and her untimely death at the age of 41. But it is the author's passionate connection to "Jane"-the affinity she feels and her imaginings of Austen's inner life-that bring Austen to life in ways no conventional biographer could. Smith's voice swings authentically between the raw, aching vulnerability of a single Christian woman battling a debilitating and mysterious chronic illness and the surges of faith she finds in the grace of a loving God. And yes, she even meets a potential Darcy at the start of her journey. This deliciously uncertain romantic tension holds the book together as Smith weaves her own thoughts, historical research, and fitting references to Austen's novels into a satisfying whole. (Oct. 16)

What People Are Saying

Tamara Leigh
"With wit, charm, and rare honesty-of which I have to believe Jane Austen would have thoroughly approved-Lori Smith weaves her personal life experiences throughout her journey into the life that was Jane's. Infused with faith, romance, loss, and a search for self, A Walk With Jane Austen makes for that rare book that keeps popping into one's thoughts and beckoning one back."--(Tamara Leigh, author of Perfecting Kate and Splitting Harriet)

Karen Joy Fowler
"A young woman goes looking for Austen in all the places Austen once lived and many of the places she wrote about. The Austen she finds is a woman of family, and of quiet but sustaining faith. Austen shares these things and many others with author Lori Smith whose book gives the reader the great pleasure of time spent with both. A lovely, intimate read."--(Karen Joy Fowler, best-selling author of The Jane Austen Book Club)

Emma Campbell Webster
"Sensitively written and carefully paced this memoir takes the reader on a tour of the author's experiences while journeying around England in the footsteps of Jane Austen. Lori Smith moves seamlessly from romantic daydreams, through a close questioning of her relationship with God, to battles with her mental and physical health. The book reads as an intimate and honest memoir and has enough to satisfy the non-Christian (like myself) if they choose to look beyond the somewhat unexpected (in a mainstream book at least) pairing of Jane Austen and Christianity. Above all else, this is a book about searching-for love, meaning, peace with oneself, health, a good night's sleep, and a decent cup of coffee that wasn't made with that freeze-dried-instant-powder-and these are experiences that anyone of any faith can relate to.... A welcoming read. Lyrical and questioning...perfectly pitched."--(Emma Campbell Webster, actress, author of Lost in Austen, and founder of lostinaustenblogspot.com)

Gina R. Dalfonzo
"With deep and sometimes heartwrenching honesty, Lori Smith weaves her story and Jane's together into a wholly unique narrative. In the midst of a craze for treating Austen's novels as little more than glorified bodice-rippers, Lori brings to bear her perspective as a single Christian woman who can identify in many ways with Austen's own beliefs and experiences, exploring truths and ideas that others gloss over. The resulting book stands out like a beacon."--(Gina R. Dalfonzo, editor of The Point weblog and writer for BreakPoint Radio)

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