Marzi Pan's love of the water began even before her birth. Her mother swam the cool waters of a northern Wisconsin lake with Marzi floating within her. Marzi was born in the water of that same lake. Indeed, some say Marzi may be a fish.
The idea is not so farfetched. When Marzi is enveloped in water, her gills and scales reveal themselves. For Marzi, water is where she feels most natural. It is her first home-a home she shares with her mother whenever possible.
Then the unthinkable happens-Marzi's mother dies. Left in the care of her reserved father, Marzi finds herself as a young woman living far from water and grieving the only relationship that had truly mattered to her. Lacking the insights of her mother, lonely and alone, she feels herself slowly drying out.
Time passes, and Marzi becomes a mother herself. But something is missing. Does the wholeness she seeks lie in the water-or in the shifting currents of Marzi's own psyche?
A touching tale of love, loss, and motherhood, The Land of Marzi Pan expresses the melancholy loneliness known only to those who lose a loved one prematurely-and offers a gentle, half-expressed hope for the future.
About the Author: As a young woman, Sara Jane Patton began writing in a longhand diary. For the next forty-four years, she chronicled her love of her children and the natural world through her journal, her poems, and her short stories.
Naturally shy and intensely private, Patton was gently guided into the craft of writing through The Writer's Hotel. With reluctance to share her work, the short story, "The Bull Rider," she received national recognition.
Diagnosed with leukemia at sixty years of age, Patton wrote The Land of Marzi Pan as she fought a slow two year battle against cancer. The final draft of this, her first and only novel, was sent to The Writers Hotel three weeks before she passed away.
