Death is what you make it. . . .Eleanor never wanted to leave the daughter she loved so much. The overpowering urge to wander -- to search, without knowing what she sought -- drove her away. She left little Cassidy in her family's loving care. But Cassidy and the others died in an accident before Eleanor could find her way home.Now, they are all reunited, in an afterlife where nothing is truly lost. Places once loved may be revisited, memories relived and even shared. One may be any age suitable to the mood and moment. Surely this is a place where Eleanor and her family can understand and heal. But some of the memories haunting Eleanor are of dreams she had tried to forget.Somehow, she must solve the mystery of her life -- or none of them will be at peace."Wyle should be proud of the opening scene of this book as it showcases . . . her descriptive powers . . . I love the way the concept of an afterlife is made real in Karen's book, and the way the various characters inter-relate, re-live moments and re-visit places in their history. . . . Wander Home acts like a large, soft comfort blanket. But don't get too comfortable. It is a barbed comfort blanket, charged with emotion. An excellent read, which I heartily recommend." -- The Indie Tribe"A story about the consequences of the choices we make, and the difficulty even we can have in understanding – and living with – the reach of those consequences. Wyle's . . . vision of the afterlife . . . is one of the loveliest. . . . Wyle has a lovely way with language, weaving characters and setting together into a seamless tapestry . . . . A beautiful story, well-written and smoothly paced with characters you can't help but fall in love with." All Things Jill-Elizabeth"The plot is well paced and opens the imagination of the readers. The afterlife that Wyle creates is brimming with memories, places to visit, and amazing people to meet. It's written in such a way that it is truly life after death. . . . Wander Home is a magical story that delves to the depths of the human psyche and is definitely recommended." The Coffee Pot Karen A. Wyle was born a Connecticut Yankee, but moved every few years throughout her childhood and adolescence. After college in California, law school in Massachusetts, and a mercifully short stint in a large San Francisco law firm, she moved to Los Angeles. There she met her husband, who hates L.A. They eventually settled in Bloomington, Indiana, home of Indiana University.Wyle has been a voracious and compulsive reader as long as she can remember. She majored in English and American Literature major at Stanford University, which suited her, although she has in recent years developed some doubts about whether studying literature is, for most people, a good preparation for enjoying it. She has been reading science fiction for several decades, but also gobbles up character-driven mysteries, historical and contemporary romance, a limited amount of fantasy, and historical fiction, with the occasional foray into anything from chick lit to military history. Her fondness for picture books, whether from my own childhood or my children's, inspired her to write her own, illustrated by various marvelous artists.Wyle's voice is the product of almost five decades of reading both literary and genre fiction. It is no doubt also influenced, although she hopes not fatally tainted, by her years of practicing appellate law. Her personal history has led her to focus on often-intertwined themes of family, communication, the impossibility of controlling events, and the persistence of unfinished business. Her brand, to the extent she has figured out what it might be, is "compassionate and thoughtful fiction" -- except when it isn't fiction, as in slice-of-life picture books and nonfiction about American law.Wyle and her husband have two grown and wildly creative adult offspring, and still miss our sweet but neurotic dog, departed several years since.
