Circling Home: What I Learned by Living Elsewhere

by Terry A. Repak

Overview

When Terry Repak and her husband moved to West Africa with two small children at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the 1990s, she seized the opportunity to connect with people of other cultures and bear witness to the ravages of the disease. Circling Home chronicles the adventures and challenges of raising children to be global citizens and trying to find home in countries as diverse as Ivory Coast, Tanzania, and Switzerland. Her memoir spotlights the complexity, struggles, and profound lessons at the heart of the expat journey.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781647425456
Publisher:	She Writes Press
Publication date:	09/12/2023
Pages:	312
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Terry A. Repak studied journalism in college and worked as a reporter for a few years before returning to graduate school. She earned a master’s degree in International Relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a PhD at Emory University. She and her partner lived in East and West Africa as well as in Europe, where he worked in the AIDS field and Terry wrote and raised their children. She has authored two other non-fiction books, numerous travel articles for newspapers and magazines, and her research has been published in academic journals. She lives in Seattle where she continues to write, to teach English to foreign language learners (ELL) and to garden, hike, and swim.

Editorial Reviews

A fascinating true story that evinces the value of family and the beauty of the world. ...The Maryland-reared author left her home country for West Africa’s Ivory Coast in the early 1990s. Adjusting to their new life was a challenge as heightened political tensions in their city of Abidjan made even excursions to the marketplace nerve-racking experiences. Repak and her family proved resilient, persistently adapting as Stefan’s [AIDS work] moved the clan back to the United States and to such places as Tanzania and Geneva. ...The author excels at showcasing the places where she’s lived... and consistently transforms simple observations into lyrical images.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Terry Repak opened herself up to living abroad in the company of her epidemiologist husband and their two young children. Her honest book captures not only the beautiful people and landscapes and wildlife they encountered at every turn, but the moments of stark loneliness and confusion. She quickly learned to make friends and seek out local women and expats who became mentors and confidantes. This is how she found "home" wherever she landed. The difference a friend can make stands out as this book's most valuable bit of wisdom.”
—Melissa Fay Greene, New York Times best-selling author of Praying for Sheetrock and The Temple Bombing

“Terry Repak writes about her family’s experiences as American expats in very personal ways, without being afraid of sharing some of the unvarnished realities. With candor and humility, she demonstrates how living overseas can be a rich and fulfilling experience. For Americans, she shows the value of opening ourselves to global perspectives and viewing the rest of the world differently while being more analytical of our own actions. This is a warm and insightful contribution to global understanding and particularly to a more textured understanding of the beauty and the complexities of Africa.”
—Dr. Helene Gayle, President of Spelman College, and former Director of the Centers for Disease Control’s National Center (NCHSTP)

“Whether she’s recounting a trek up Mount Kilimanjaro with women friends or describing what it’s like to raise children during stints in Africa and Europe with her husband, Terry's memoir is a graceful and inspiring book about the rewards and challenges of an adventurous, fulfilling life as a global citizen.”
—Misha Berson, former Arts Reporter for the Seattle Times and author of Something’s Coming, Something Good: West Side Story and the American Imagination

“Terry Repak draws on her sharp eye as a journalist and her heart in connecting with others wherever her husband's career took their family in the early days of AIDS work. After living in west and east Africa and Europe, she shows us how home is a place we must access within ourselves while raising children overseas, taking care of ageing parents, and building community again and again. The take-away from this absorbing memoir is one worth pondering: ‘After years of living overseas, I concluded that connecting with people instead of focusing on differences was the most fulfilling way of being in the world.’”
—Jennifer Haupt, best-selling author of Alone Together and In the Shadow of 10,000 Hills, and recipient of the Washington State Book Award for General Nonfiction

“If you have ever been overseas—especially to Africa—or are planning to go, you must read Circling Home. The book is written with such honesty and vivid details of both people and places that readers are guaranteed to find many inspiring gems. It's the author’s ability to be open and honest about relationships with friends and family that struck me as unusually perceptive and enlightening. I found myself nodding and smiling—and occasionally crying—from the first page to the last. A great read.”
—Pamela White, former US Ambassador to Haiti and The Gambia, and former USAID Mission Director in Tanzania and Liberia

“Anyone contemplating living abroad for either her own or a spouse’s career will find Terry Repak’s memoir about her family’s long stints in two African nations and in Europe invaluable. While offering lots of practical advice, Terry shines in contemplating both the difficulties and the lasting enrichment she, her husband and children experienced.”
—Liza Nelson, author of Playing Boticelli

From the Publisher

2024-03-06
In Repak’s memoir, an American woman details years spent in a variety of countries with her peripatetic family.

The Maryland-reared author left her home country for West Africa’s Ivory Coast in the early 1990s. At the time, she and her husband, Stefan, who was working on an AIDS project for the CDC, had a 4-year-old son (Aaron) and a 1-year-old daughter (Elena). Adjusting to their new life was a challenge, as heightened “political tensions” in their city of Abidjan made even excursions to the marketplace nerve-racking experiences. But Repak and her family proved resilient, persistently adapting as Stefan’s CDC jobs moved the clan back to the United States and to such places as Tanzania and Geneva. They befriended expats and locals, learned different languages, and immersed themselves in new cultures; for them, home was a forever “evolving” notion. The author excels at showcasing the places where she’s lived; the Ivory Coast, for example, despite its unrest, offered an amiable populace and a quieter way of life that an introvert like Repak could appreciate (much of her narrative lingers in this country, where her family lived for six years). She discusses extended family as well, including her parents and siblings, who endured their own ordeals in the United States. The latter half of the memoir relays various trips with family and friends that, while sublimely described, aren’t quite as absorbing as accounts of Stefan’s work with HIV-infected individuals, a crucial element of the book. Nevertheless, Repak consistently transforms simple observations into lyrical images: “It was crisp and clear that night at zero degrees centigrade with a billion stars speckling the sky… [we were] tiptoeing across the highest mountain on the continent in the inky dark.”

A fascinating true story that evinces the value of family and the beauty of the world.

Kirkus Reviews