Totten chronicles her journey through a childhood shaped by alcoholism, family dysfunction, and emotional isolation, exploring the winding road of forgiveness she finds herself on as an older adult. The narrative spans decades, tackling her struggles with parental abandonment, her mother’s alcoholism, and the silos of silence that defined her family’s communication. Totten’s path to becoming a physician, her relationships, and her quest for self-acceptance and reconciliation form the backbone of this deeply personal story, as, through moments of trauma, resilience, and eventual healing, she reflects on the complexities of family dynamics and the lifelong impact of unresolved pain.
Themes of alcoholism, generational silence, and the search for identity resonate deeply, making the memoir relatable and poignant. Totten’s ability to confront painful truths while seeking understanding and closure is inspiring, and her emotional honesty reverberates throughout. From a young age, she acknowledges that her “need for acceptance overrode everything else”—an admission that echoes both a loss of innocence and an important step in her healing journey. This testament to resilience is ideal for readers interested in family dynamics, addiction recovery, and personal growth. --Publisher's blurb
About the author:
Mary Anne Totten, MD, is a retired physician who practiced primary care, endocrinology, and geriatrics in Boston, Massachusetts; Parkersburg, West Virginia; and Manchester, New Hampshire. After she retired from the practice of medicine in 2015, she was ordained as an interfaith spiritual minister by the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine (ChIME). She currently volunteers in the Spiritual Care Department in her retirement community in Concord, New Hampshire. She has traveled around the world twice, has lived in eight different states, and visited forty-six of the fifty US states.
Join Mary Anne at Gibson's Bookstore on Thu., March 5, 2026 at 6:30 pm where she will present her new memoir.
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