Anchor Out

by Barbara Sapienza

Sixty-year-old Frances Pia lives alone on a thirty-foot sailboat anchored near Sausalito, where she communes with the fog, sea lions, cormorants, and two sailor friends, Otto and Russell. She performs random acts of public defacement―painting drainpipes, public restrooms, and murals on the sides of houses―which she believes are beautification projects, and struggles with bouts of depression and mania. Frankly, she’s a bit of a nutcase.


But Frances wasn’t always this way. She was once a Catholic nun with a sister, Anne, who loved her dearly. But then she slept with her brother-in-law, Greg―and ashamed and pregnant, she fled, leaving Anne, her art, and her vocation behind. When she also lost her baby, Nicola, in a freak accident, she lost faith in God and became a keeper of sorrows.


Through a series of wacky adventures, including bouts with the cops and the sea, Frances opens her heart to love for the first time in years―and begins to really paint the town, redeeming herself with Anne and freeing herself from her guilt over Nicola’s death along the way.

Genres: Fiction

232 pages, Paperback

First published April 25, 2017

About the author

Barbara Sapienza, PhD, is a retired clinical psychologist and an alumna of San Francisco State University’s creative writing master’s program. She writes and paints, nourished by her spiritual practices of meditation, tai chi, and dance. Her family, friends, and grandchildren are her teachers. Her first novel, Anchor Out (She Writes Press, 2017) received an IPPY bronze medal for Best Regional Fiction, West Coast. Sapienza lives in Sausalito, CA, with her husband.

Reviews

[Debra Lucas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This novel: ANCHOR OUT is written by the wonderful author Barbara Sapienza. It is about what happen to Frances Pia when she makes a terrible mistake in her young life; and takes a swift fall from grace. I understand that feeling.....most all of us do at one time or another in our lives. Frances was a nun, and she decided at a fairly young age to leave the life of a Sister and Mother. She lives what's called: "anchor out", in a 30 foot sailboat that's anchored in San Francisco Bay. She has two great neighbors beside her: Otto, a former Norwegian skier; and Russell, a man in his sixties, like Frances. There is a mutual attraction between these two. Will Frances be able to come to terms with her past, so that she can love Russell? Her greatest mistake and sorrow comes because she sleeps with her sister Anne's husband, Greg....only one time. The result of that union brings Frances her greatest joy and sorrows! She immediately loses the friendship of her younger sister Anne. How does Fran recover from the loss of her greatest joy, a son, who dies, and becomes an unbearable loss? I think the following quote sums up this book very nicely. A Dominican Nun named Mary said: "give me the courage and hope to be human, the courage to surrender to what is...". I believe the strength of B. Sapienza's writing, is in showing the struggle we all go through to be human beings! I really appreciated the this book because it's so real to what life truly is. Life with its joys AND sorrows. Read ANCHOR OUT....you'll be so very glad you did.
I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway and the above is my unbiased opinion of this book.

[Jmp · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great descriptions of living on the San Francisco Bay in a boat and fantastic images of sailing. Lucky lady to have really good friends