Footsteps

by Susan M. Tiberghien

Susan Tiberghien´s poetic memoir evokes a life fully lived and closely observed. In elegant prose and poetry, she presents the landscapes of her time with fresh eyes, gentle humor, and a generous spirit. The rooftops of Grenoble, the hills above Lago Maggiore, Geneva in its white fog, are the settings for a French-American romance, an international domestic tale, full of children and laughter, and at the end a new direction and revelation. Footsteps, A European Album is a wise book, and a pleasure to read. Peter Meinke, The Piano Tuner, Zinc Fingers In this album of wonderfully witty and poignant essays, S.Tiberghien captures stories from thirty-five years of family life in Europe. The collection describes a love story and from that matrix a meditation about many kinds of love. Light and dark days, funny and momentous ones are celebrated as faith and an energetic capacity for friendship define the family´s cross-cultural path. The pages fly by and before we know it, the six children have grown. In the new silence, familiar footsteps insist that she write. WallisWilde-Menozzi, Mother Tongue, An American Life in Italy Susan M. Tiberghien, American-born writer living in Switzerland, has published two memoirs, Looking for Gold (Daimon Verlag, 1997) and Circling to the Center (Paulist Press, 2001) and many narrative essays in journals and anthologies. She teaches workshops for the International Women's Writing Guild and C.G. Jung Centers in the USA, and for the Geneva Writers' Group and writers' conferences in Europe.

160 pages, Hardcover

First published March 19, 2004

About the author

After marrying a Frenchman, following him around Europe with a growing family, I started to write more or less full time at the age of 50 when we settled down in Geneva, Switzerland. I published my first book, Looking for Gold: A Year in Jungian Analysis, at the age of 60.

I continued to publish, two more memoirs and numerous narrative essays in journals and anthologies. Then the widely read One Year to a Writing Life, and spring 2015, Side by Side: Writing your Love Story and Footsteps: In Love with a Frenchman.

I have been teaching writing for over 20 years, here in Geneva where I direct the Geneva Writers' Group (an association of writers, with presently over 230 members), around Europe, and in the States for the International Women's Writing Guild, at Writers Centers, and at CG Jung Societies.

I feel extremely fortunate at the age of 80 to still be in love with the same Frenchman, to enjoy visits from our six children and spouses and sixteen grandkids...and to write and teach and read and dream.

Reviews

[Nancy Freund · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lovely series of vignettes, the perfect night-cap to enjoy one or two of these joyful stories before bed, putting everything right in the world, one paragraph at a time. A new edition of this book is coming out soon, and I am eagerly awaiting it with plans to start reading it again, from the beginning. 'Footsteps' reveals Susan Tiberghien as a wonderful writer, mother, wife, adventurer, expat, instructor, Jungian, and friend. This memoir earns its place among a very small number of books that will remain on my bedside table long-term. I feel very fortunate indeed that my path has crossed with Susan's and this little book has found its way into my personal library.