The Slow Road North

How I Found Peace in an Improbable Country

By: Rosie Schaap

Narrated by: Rosie Schaap

From the acclaimed author of the “wonderfully funny and openhearted” (NPR) Drinking with Men comes a poignant, wrenching, and ultimately hopeful book—equal parts memoir and social history—that follows the author, after a series of tragic losses, to Northern Ireland, where she finds a path toward healing.

Rosie Schaap had a solid career as a journalist and a life that looked to others like nonstop fun: all drinking and dining and traveling to beautiful places—and getting paid to write about it. But under the surface she was reeling from the loss of her husband and her mother—who died just one year apart. Caring for them had claimed much of her daily life in her late thirties. Mourning them would take longer.

It wasn’t until a reporting trip took her to the Northern Irish countryside that Rosie found a partner to heal with: Glenarm, a quiet seaside village in County Antrim. That first visit made such an impression she returned to make a life. This unlikely place—in a small tough country mainly associated with sectarian strife—gave her a measure of peace that had seemed impossible elsewhere.

Weaving personal narrative and social history, The Slow Road North is a moving and wise look at how a community can offer the key to healing. It’s a portrait of a complicated place at a pivotal time—through Brexit, a historic school integration, and a pandemic—and a love letter to a village, a culture, and a country.

©2024 Rosie Schaap (P)2024 Dreamscape Media

Bittersweet memoir.

I absolutely loved this book and the way the author narrated it. Beautifully written, unflinching, open and a true gem. Bought the book for the travel essay that is in there somewhere, but the richness of it knocked me over. Everyone should read this book.