Point Last Seen

After seven years of living as a battered wife, Hannah Nyala took her two children and ran. She eventually found work with the National Park Service as a search-and-rescue tracker--but her flight, and the abuse, were to continue for many years. Three times her ex-husband abducted the children and repeatedly threatened their lives and hers. In this wrenching and beautifully written account of her flight for safety and her life, Nyala reveals the intricate art of tracking: the challenge of keeping one's eye on the ground while racing against time, and the need to comprehend every sign. Weaving riveting stories of her own tracking missions with the nightmarish events of her life as one pursued, Nyala takes us on her personal journey toward independence and self-reliance, and powerfully demonstrates the acute powers of observation that to this day help her and her children survive. Few have written so perceptively about the terrors of living with family violence and about the limited avenues of escape available to most of its victims.

"[A] powerful book..." - Gabrielle Lord