Learning to Speak (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798215943830)

Out of a small egg buried deep inside a nest of sand crawls a baby sea turtle. As it reaches the sea, it begins a long, solitary existence as the carrier of a soul that will, after years of learning patience, balance and the grace of living, be reborn as a human being.

Genevieve "Genie" Hudson thought she was doing fine, but when she comes home and finds her cat dead, she begins to realize the extent of her mental struggle. Mimi's death sends Genie on yet another self-destructive drinking binge except this time, it lands her in the ER. Wanting to escape her life and the dark memories it carries, she books herself a stay at a meditative retreat on the Caribbean coast of Mexico. The workshops and meditation help, but when she meets Rio, a biologist devoted to the protection of sea turtles, she uncovers the secret his family has been keeping for generations and is thrust into a new world of altered perceptions and reflections. Through this gift she learns what it means to be human. She returns home to find she no longer fits into her old life and is forced to peel back the mask behind which she has been hiding. News of a hurricane heading for the retreat and the turtle conservation center sends Genie back to Mexico to face a much darker demon than the ones she carries within.