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BARBARA is a riches-to-rags tale about an extraordinarily talented, troubled young woman. After Barbara's death in 20 I 0, the author, Wendell Affield, discovered thousands of documents locked in a rodent-infested chickenhouse. Having spent his childhood living with his mother's mental illness, Affield studies the contents in an effort to understand his mother's life and search for clues to his biological father. BARBARA, PARTS I and II, explore Barbara's two-decade downward spiral as she struggles with borderline personality disorder (BPD). Taught by the famous pianist, Emile Bosquet at Institut Droissard, Brussels, Belgium, Barbara's natural talent blossoms. Mouse-gnawed 1939 documents reveal Barbara's impulsive engagement (and possible marriage) in Poland, and her narrow escape from the Nazi invasion. Upon her return to New York, after dropping out of juilliard School, Barbara begins a decade of running from her problems, leaving a wake of failed marriages and rendezvous resulting in four children. Feeling abandoned by her family and searching for a new start, she posts an advertisement in Cupid's Columns that is answered by a bachelor farmer in northern Minnesota. BARBARA, Part III, chronicles the author's search for his biological father and the labyrinth leading to a breakthrough. Acceptance by his new-found family is an incredible testament to the power of love.

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9781945902086

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It's one thing to write a book; it's another to live it. Wendell Affield never knew his father. His childhood was punctuated by a volatile mother and an unpredictable stepfather. At twelve, he and his siblings were placed in foster homes, his mother committed to a mental hospital. At sixteen, he rode the rails out west and lived in hobo camps. At seventeen, he enlisted in the navy. At twenty, he was wounded in an ambush while driving a river patrol boat in Vietnam and medevaced home. This lifetime of adventure and instability are the foundation for everything he writes.After being diagnosed with PTSD in the 90s, Wendell began exploring writing as a way to process everything he had experienced. He studied the writing craft at Bemidji State University. Today, he speaks to groups across Minnesota about PTSD and leads workshops to show veterans and others how to use writing as a way to move forward from their experiences.

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