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“Intense readability . . .haunting power . . . as well as lush, vivid atmosphere that is alluring in its own right. . . . Coleman’s memoir is not one of trendy virtue, but of authenticity.”

–New York Times Book Critic

Janet Maslin

“Combine the sincerity of Thoreau’s Walden with the poignancy of Jeannette Walls’s The Glass Castle, add dashes of the lush prose found in Michael Pollan’s The Botany of Desire, and you end up with Melissa Coleman’s This Life Is in Your Hands. From first to last, I was engaged and deeply moved by this evocative tale of Paradise found then lost.”

–Author The Hour I First Believed, I Know This Much Is True, and She’s Come Undone

Wally Lamb

“A dream, a family, a heartbreaking tragedy–and a book I could not put down. Melissa Coleman’s memoir of a back-to-the-land childhood is fresh, organic, and gorgeously written.”

–Author of The Law of Dreams, The O’Briens and Carry Me

Peter Behrens

“With beautiful lyrical prose, Melissa Coleman shows us what life in a 1970s back-to-nature farm was like, and the dear price her family paid pursuing their dream.”

–Author of The Red Thread and The Book That Matters Most

Ann Hood

“Melissa Coleman’s enthralling account of 70’s back-to-the-land living is an important cultural and emotional document: this is a story about surviving and, eventually, thriving amidst the shadows of loss.”

–Author of The Uses of Enchantment and The Folded Clock

Heidi Julavits

“Lyrical and down-to-earth, wry and heartbreaking, This Life Is in Your Hands is a fascinating and powerful memoir. Melissa Coleman doesn’t just tell the story of her family’s brave experiment and private tragedy, she brings to life an important and underappreciated chapter of our recent history.”

–Author of Little Children, Election, and The Leftovers

Tom Perrotta