Interweaving past and present, Powell’s story reveals her pluck and courage in overcoming the loss of her father and early sexual abuse. Her love of the ocean draws her to a life on the water and she becomes a licensed boat captain at the age of twenty-one.

Powell navigates tender and risky relationships with women and men who are companions and guides through her loss of innocence and sexual awakening.

Working and living on boats is a siren call that Powell follows from New England to the Caribbean and the Pacific Northwest. After raising two children as a single parent, a DNA test confirms early feelings Powell had about not belonging. She is left to make sense of her mother’s secret and face the loss of not one father but two. As a result she is able to claim a key part of her missing identity.

Wall Street Journal — Family Secrets: DNA Tests and the Future of Family — The Future of Everything Podcast with Pamela Powell

Hanukkah 2018