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Sarah M. Wells had one degree in mind when she went off to college: to secure her Mrs. and become a stay-at-home mom. Ten years later, life does not look the way she expected. Instead of staying home, she's the primary breadwinner while her husband raises their kids. Together, they've weathered miscarriages, job changes, role reversals, community shifts, family vacations, and even youth league recreational soccer. Now, in the midst of their tenth year of marriage, temptations saunter in and threaten to shake everything they've built together to the ground. In American Honey, Wells digs in deep to uncover the foundation of what made her and what it is that will help sustain her relationships. What keeps a marriage together? Could it fall apart? Through intimate details, vulnerability, humor, and love, Wells explores the depths of mercy and faith it's going to take to weather the storms of married life.
Sarah M. Wells is the author of five books: American Honey, The Family Bible Devotional Volumes 1 and 2, and two collections of poems: Between the Heron and the Moss and Pruning Burning Bushes. Six of her essays have been listed as Notable in Best American Essays. She lives with her husband and three children in Ashland, Ohio.
“Sarah Wells writes with absolute beauty and unusual clarity about matters of faith, human yearning, and the complexity of marriage. American Honey is a rare memoir, filled with gentle humor, pain, intimacy, honesty, and the occasional bison. A lovely and loving book by a talented writer.”
—Dinty W. Moore, author of Between Panic & Desire
“In a world fissured by division—in faith, in families, in politics—Sarah Wells offers an alternative: American Honey, a debut memoir that invites us to gather around the pool table, sticks and drinks in hand, and have a real conversation about the wounds we carry, the desires we feed, the work we show up for, the temptations we resist, and mostly, the humans we love—day after lucky day.”
—Jill Christman, author of Darkroom: A Family Exposure
“Sarah Wells brings a unique perspective to the domestic essay. American Honey radiates an honesty, candor, and vulnerability I find not just compelling but refreshingly rare.”
—Robert Atwan, series editor of The Best American Essays