An old woman, widowed for most

of her life, living alone and enduring

in a society which places little value

on solitary, individual women.., can

her life have any meaning?

This fascinating novel by Lael

Wertenbaker, author of the now classic

Death of a Man, is about one such

woman, Augusta Turnley, who asks

this terrifying question.

Born in an upper New York state

town before the turn of the century,

Augusta was gifted with vitality, a

tart sense of humor, and modest

psychic powers. She married blindly

adoring Carter Turnley, who took her

to a Montana mining settlement, then

to an equally alien city in the Deep

South where he was born. There,

among her husband s relatives,

Augusta and her young daughter

were stranded when Carter was killed

in World War I. Searching for a

meaningful life, Augusta, now with

neither man nor profession, moved

on to New York City, to Hollywood,

and back East again, determined to

be independent-her own person-

despite loneliness.

Now at eighty-four the victim of

an accident that lefther unable to

move or speak, Augusta lies impris-

oned in her own body. Yet her mind

is anything but paralyzed. She relives

the past in vivid flashes as she tries

to confront the crucial questions about

her own existence. To young doctor

Rob Martin, Augusta is absorbingly interesting, wholly alive. With the

help of her only grandchild, he breaks

through Augusta s sealed-off world,

lending perspective to her passionate

inquiry.

Perilous Voyage portrays a woman

who dares to come to terms with

loneliness and her individual identity.

Augusta Turnley proves to be, despite

her relative obscurity and unobtru-

siveness in society, a magnificently

vital, shatteringly human protagonist.