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Coming Home: A Spiritual Memoir

by Lori Vos

Through narrative, personal essay, and poetry, author Lori Vos tells a story of redemption, recounting her painful and terrifying childhood, her decision to leave her family, and the path that brought healing from surrogate mothers, friends, communities, and her loving and supportive husband. Vos came to realize that her greatest desire was for home, a place where she could be safe and held in loving arms, a place where she knew in her bones that everything was and would be all right. At the center of that home was a deep relationship with God, making home a place where she could realize the words of Matthew: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest” (Matt. 11:28–30). Coming Home is a beautifully told memoir by a writer whose inspired words and graceful phrases sing and soar through the heavens, then return to earth, to our home, gifting us with fortitude, comfort, and love.

BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Personal Memoir
BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Healing / Prayer & Spiritual

ISBN: 978-1-956056-50-1 (print; softcover; perfect bound)
ISBN: 978-1-956056-51-8 (ebook)

LCCN: 20222943941

Released August 2022
Copyright 2022

174 pages

Author Biography

Lori Vos grew up in the beautiful Niagara region on the shore of Lake Ontario before moving across the lake to Kingston, where she now lives with her husband, Ray. She teaches academic writing at Queen’s University and writes in several genres: children’s literature, short fiction, poetry, and creative non-fiction.

Endorsements

“This remarkable melding of essay, memoir, and poetry takes us on Lori Vos’s long passage from a childhood dense with peril to a place of love, stability, and connection. Her lucid, unflinching storytelling redefines the meaning of home, built on self-insight, a loving partner, beloved sister, dear friends, ordinary pleasures, and a constant yet changing faith in God.”
—Maureen Garvie, novelist and editor

“About three quarters of the way through Coming Home, Lori Vos articulates her work as a writer: ‘I listen for the silent voice of the Spirit who teaches me and helps me to write true things, to sing through the middle of a note.’ And Vos does, indeed, sings through the middle of each note in this spiritual memoir, even though the song is not an easy piece of music. To tell the truth about a scarring past while also intoning ‘simple, naked praise’ calls for great range and clarity. But great range and clarity are exactly what readers can expect from Lori Vos’s voice.”
—Jane Zwart, English Professor, Calvin University; and poet

“In Coming Home, Lori Vos retraces her spiritual route from a childhood stained by neglect and abuse to a light-filled, rooted, and flourishing mid-life. Contemplative, attentive to the beauties of nature, and scattered with poetic insights like stars.”
—Susan Olding, author of Big Reader

Articles and Reviews

Lily Andrews, Review, Reader Views, January 17, 2023