Free To Go

About the Book

In Free To Go, Wanda Ryder's newest novel, we find Nora and Walter Fields, an unassuming farm couple from Manitoba, preparing for their daughter Sandra's wedding. The event puts a strain on the entire family's relationships Ð from the disagreements between Sandra and her brother, Trevor, to Walter's unexplained and withdrawn behavior.

A neighbor, Maggie Kroeger, tries to provide the support that Nora needs, but her unpredictable behavior sometimes gets them both into trouble. When Nora is left to cope with an incorrigible mother-in-law, her husband's abrupt departure and the responsibility of running the farm, she has to rely on assistance from Maggie and her brother, Martin.

Then, when Nora feels compelled to move to Vancouver to be with Trevor, who has been diagnosed with leukemia, she begins a life completely different from any she has ever known. Through the Hope Clinic, Nora meets and makes friends with Colleen and her daughter, Jocelyn, who also has leukemia. The women become close friends and their mutual sense of humor helps ease the worry surrounding their children. Colleen's brother, Ron, also becomes a close friend, although it is Nora who has to help Trevor deal with his condition and the choices he has to make.

When Trevor finally agrees to a bone marrow transplant from Sandra, Maggie comes to stay with Nora and, together, they share the constant hospital visits as well as the day-to-day care and feeding of their beloved patient. Maggie, in her inimitable way, provides much of the humor throughout the book, and in spite of the seriousness of the plot, provides the reader with many laugh-out-loud opportunities.

About the Author

Wanda and her husband, George, reside in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba, but spend the winter months in south Texas.

She is well known for her versatility, having previously worked in several genres. Wanda has written plays for stage, television and radio and has published short stories and articles. She published a short story collection titled, From A Distance, as well as a novel, Prairie Sailor. Her share of the income from the latter book is donated to leukemia research. Ghost Towns of Manitoba, a social history that Wanda co-authored with Helen Mulligan, won a Margaret McWilliams medal from the Manitoba Historical Society. This work has recently been revised, expanded and republished.

Wanda Ryder's short stories acknowledge the greatness of Margaret Laurence's fiction and at the same time speak a new vision of what it was like to be a child and woman in a comparable time and place in Manitoba. Robert Kroetsch

Ghost Towns of Manitoba is 'an exciting and valuable addition to Manitoba's written history.' The Winnipeg Free Press

'Social history at its best.' The Brandon Sun

'A well-documented, thoroughly researched, well-written record.' Prairie Fire