By the time I had begun writing my novel Landslide, my mother and three close friends had died. My husband Ken had battled cancer. I had gone through early menopause which also felt like sorrow and demise.
Since starting Landslide, we have lost two additional friends, and Ken’s entire nuclear family – father, mother and sister – all gone.
I write novels to explore questions that are preoccupying me. In Landslide’s case I consider how resilience arises out of catastrophic loss. While writing Landslide did not stop the pain of losing Ken’s family and my friends, it did help me face death with greater grace, presence and love.
Perhaps it might help others find optimism too.
“Such a magical world of love, family, loss and renewal Melissa Leet has created in Landslide! I love the deep humanity of this novel, its generosity of spirit, its faith in the self and the self’s interrelationship with others and with the invisible universe. The book’s enchantment makes one want to slip between its covers and inhabit every page.”
– Elise Paschen, winner of the Nicholas Roerich Poetry Prize, author of The Nightlife and other works