A powerful, lyrical memoir of self-discovery full of warmth and wry humor --- a book that combines the soul-baring insight of WILD, the profound wisdom of SHOP CLASS AS SOULCRAFT, and the ad venturous spirit of EAT, PRAY, LOVE.

When her college-bound daughter leaves home, Lynn Darling, widowed more than a decade earlier, finds herself alone and utterly lost. Freed of her parental responsibilities, she has no idea what she wants or even who she is. Searching for answers, she leaves her apartment in New York City and moves to a cranky little house in the middle of the Vermont woods, her only companions, a new dog and a compass. There she hopes to develop a sense of direction --- both in the woods and in her life.

As she finds new ways to get lost in her own backyard, Darling meditates on her past and on the challenges that aging poses to love, work --- not to mention fashion --- and the way she sees herself. She has just begun to chart a new course for the future when an unexpected setback unsettles her newfound balance.

With rare insight and remarkable honesty, OUT OF THE WOODS reveals how honing the skills of navigation --- literal and metaphorical --- smoothed one woman's path through the uneven course of life. It is a story at once universal and deeply personal --- in the words of writer Geraldine Brooks, "both a compass and a manifesto for navigating the often-treacherous switchbacks of the second half of life."