Becoming the Ocean
A Memoir by Erin Russ
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A 10,000-mile journey to save a marriage. A secret that could destroy it.
In her early thirties, running from a mistake she desperately wants to keep secret, Erin sets sail with her husband, Brian, on a 10,000-mile voyage across the Pacific. What begins as an attempt to salvage her relationship quickly becomes a reckoning. On the open ocean, there is nowhere left to hide.
Far from shore, Erin is forced to confront a painful truth: saving her marriage might mean losing herself.
Juxtaposing the awe-inspiring, boundless beauty of the open ocean with the claustrophobic, high-stakes tension of a fracturing marriage, Becoming the Ocean is a courageous and unflinchingly honest portrayal of a woman confronting the ways she has performed goodness, chosen safety over truth, and stayed too long in a life that no longer felt like her own.
For readers of Cheryl Strayed's Wild and Belle Burden's Strangers, this book is for anyone who has built a life based on who they think they should be, and is ready to start becoming who they really are.
Praise for Becoming the Ocean
“A memoir that looks upon the self’s journey with tender attention and generous care.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"With breathtaking honesty and extraordinary grace, Becoming the Ocean is a memoir that reminds us healing is rarely a straight path—but it is always possible. Erin Russ transforms life's deepest heartbreaks into a story of courage, compassion, and quiet strength that will leave readers feeling both seen and inspired. Her voice is intimate, fearless, and impossible to forget. This is the kind of book you'll press into the hands of someone you love and say, 'You need to read this.'"
—Samantha Olsen, Los Angeles Book Review