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Start giftingDriven
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Learn moreA searing memoir about one woman’s road to hope following the death of her troubled brother, told through the series of cars that accompanied her on her journey
Growing up in a blue-collar family in the Midwest, Melissa Stephenson longed for escape. Her wanderlust was an innate reaction to the powerful personalities around her and came, too, from her desire to find a place in the world where her artistic ambitions wouldn’t be thwarted. She found in automobiles the promise of a future beyond Indiana state lines.
From a lineage of secondhand family cars of the late ’60s, to the Honda that carried her from Montana to Texas as her new marriage disintegrated, the ’70s Ford she drove away from her brother’s house after he took his life—leaving her the truck, a dog, and a few mixed tapes—and the VW van she now uses to take her kids camping, Melissa knows these cars better than she knows some of the people closest to her. Driven away from grief and toward hope, Melissa reckons with what it means to lose a beloved sibling.
Driven is a powerful story of healing—one for all who have had to look back at pain to see how they can now move forward.
Melissa Stephenson earned her BA in English from the University of Montana and her MFA in fiction from Texas State University. Her writing has appeared in such publications as the Rumpus, the Washington Post, and Zyzzyva. Driven is her first book. She lives in Missoula, Montana, with her two kids.
Eileen Stevens is a voice-over actress whose voice can be heard on cartoons, promos, programs for English-language learners, and audiobooks. An Earphones Award–winning narrator, she is also an audiobook director and producer.
Reviews
"Driven is an edgy memoir of cars, crises, and coming of age.”
“Wanderlust is instilled in Stephenson from a young age, and cars both enable her spirit of adventure and allow her to get at intangible emotions while dealing with very tangible objects…We need more stories from women like [this]…[who] crave new experiences and knowledge and are frank about the compromises they have to make for their families.”
“Explores a woman’s relationship with her family and dead brother through the cars that came into their lives…Lyrical and eloquent, Stephenson’s book is a journey of pain, beauty, and healing that also celebrates the life of her tragically misunderstood brother. Raw, tender, and uniquely envisioned.”
“Driven is a restless road trip of a memoir…[as] Stephenson finds comfort and freedom in the cars that grounded the turbulence and restlessness of her life.”
“Stephenson’s memoir offers a rewarding twist on an American story and is filled with love, grief, grit, and healing.”
“A coming-of-age memoir about wanderlust, grief, and perseverance, Stephenson’s first book packs an emotional wallop.”
“Melissa Stephenson’s Driven does the hard and wonderful work of exhuming the beauty from which disconnection and heartbreak are woven. Perhaps no life, she reminds us, is ever yet fully lived; and there’s a beauty in that, too.”
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