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Loveyoubye

Holding Fast, Letting Go, And Then There's The Dog

Published by She Writes Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster

About The Book

Loveyoubye opens when Rossandra White’s husband of twenty-five years disappears, leaving behind a cryptic, hastily-written note on the kitchen counter, and then returns weeks later, offering few details about where he went. This sequence of events has played out before. Despite knowledge of at least one affair, she trusts he is being true to her and that their tumultuous marriage will endure. But this time is different. A subsequent confluence of crises rattles Rossandra’s core, shedding light on both the dark elements of their marriage and the direction her life must follow if she decides to leave her husband. In South Africa, land of her birth, Rossandra’s younger brother, whose physical and mental disabilities have stricken her with a lifetime of guilt, needs her help, and she answers the call. She returns to California where her dog Sweetpea, who for years has served as a vital emotional link between Rossandra and her husband, has begun to succumb to a fatal illness.

About The Author

Rossandra White, secure in marriage to the American man of her dreams and working for the Postal Service in administration, took up writing to quiet the voices from the past back home in Africa. The result: Monkey's Wedding and Mine Dances, two young adult novels about family, race, and the dark magic of a society poised on the brink of change. And then her world fell apart when her marriage unraveled, along with a crisis back home in Africa and the worsening ill health of her beloved dog. Loveyoubye, her memoir, resulted as a way to heal the past and to face the future. She lives in Laguna Beach, California with her two Staffordshire Bull Terriers with whom she fights for space in her bed. When she's not writing, she enjoys yoga, Jazzercize, and hiking the hills behind her home in Laguna canyon.

Product Details

  • Publisher: She Writes Press (April 8, 2014)
  • Length: 280 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781938314513

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Raves and Reviews

“. . . a fascinating story about a childhood spent in an exotic land and a family life full of secrets.”
—Kirkus

“. . . a bold and powerful voice…something we could all learn a lesson from.”
—RedCity Review

“Rossandra White has written a captivating memoir that takes you from the jungles of Africa to the beaches of Southern California. Rossandra writes with heart and wisdom about being abandoned by her husband, dealing with unresolved issues from the past and her great love for her dog. An entertaining and ultimately uplifting book.”
—Anita Hughes, author of Monarch Beach, Market Street, and Lake Como

“The title Loveyoubye, captures in one word the dual themes woven with grace and agility throughout this magnificent memoir—the universal and often simultaneous experiences of love and loss. As Rossandra White gathers up the pieces of her life at the culmination of a tumultuous marriage, she travels, in real time and in memory, from her childhood in Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia), to South Africa, to her adopted homeland in Southern California, and her portrayals of these journeys (and the loved ones she encounters along the way) are so clear-eyed, so perceptive and poetic, that we, the lucky reader, would happily accompany her anywhere in the world. And then there’s the dog, whose impact on the author will captivate and move you as much as any human relationship in this entertaining, profound, uplifting book.”
—Thomas White, author of Wisdom of Sons

“Maybe in the best of all possible worlds, all you need is love, but, as White reminds us in her very affecting memoir, reality is much more complicated. Any woman who has stayed in a marriage, or relationship, longer than she should have, will see herself in these pages. Anyone with half a heart will be touched by White’s guilt over a disabled brother left behind in South Africa when she came to America and whom she does her best to care for, long-distance. Then there’s the dog, Sweetpea, a Staffie, love at first sight for White. No surprise that a woman whose formative years were informed by a baboon named Archie, a Vervet monkey named Jo-Jo, and a tiny pop-eyed nocturnal creature named Little One (not to mention the Staffies she grew up with) would find solace in the loving devotion dogs give best. And with it, the courage to move on.”
—Deborah Batterman, Pushcart nominee and author of Shoes Hair Nails

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