Ellen Urbani is the author of Landfall, a novel set in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and the memoir When I Was Elena which documents her life in Guatemala where she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer during the final years of that country’s civil war. Her personal essays have been published in The New York Times, TIME magazine, and numerous anthologies. She has a bachelor’s degree from The University of Alabama, a master’s degree from Marylhurst University, and trained in the oncology program at Oregon Health & Science University Hospital. Before leaving the medical field to write books, Ellen’s work spanned the fields of oncology counseling and federal disaster/trauma response; her work is profiled in the short documentary film Paint Me a Future, which qualified for Academy Award consideration. Having spent her formative years in Virginia and Alabama, Ellen’s a Southerner at heart, though she currently splits her time between a farm in Oregon and a dirt path winding through unfamiliar territory in countries around the world.

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“You can write your ass off, Southern girl!”

— Pat Conroy, author of The Prince of Tides

Landfall

Rosebud Howard almost survives. She charges through the Lower Ninth Ward, beating the wall of floodwater by a half-block. She clambers out of an attic, onto a roof, into a rowboat. But her grueling trek to Tuscaloosa, in search of help for her family, ends when she’s hit and killed by a car laden with supplies for Hurricane Katrina victims. Passenger Rose Aikens, orphaned by the crash, climbs away from the wreck after lacing the dead girl’s sneakers onto her own feet. When she discovers they share not only shoes but a name and a birth year, Rose embarks upon a guilt-assuaging odyssey to retrace Rosebud’s last steps and locate her remaining kin. The stories and destinies of these two teenagers—one black, one white—converge in Landfall, giving voice to the dead and demonstrating how strangers, with perseverance and forgiveness, can unite to reconstruct each other’s shattered family histories.

HONORS:
French Prix des Lecteurs
Women's National Book Association Great Group Reads Selection
Maria Thomas Fiction Award

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“An amazing and original piece of literature.”

— Fannie Flagg, author of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe

“A powerful novel that will resonate in your soul. Outstanding!”

— Garth Stein, author of The Art of Racing in the Rain

“Recalls Zora Neale Hurston for the strength of the women in its pages.”

— Tony D'Souza, author of Mule

When I Was Elena

When I Was Elena is an extraordinary account of a young American woman’s sojourn in the guerrilla-infested mountains of Guatemala. At age twenty-two, Ellen Urbani left behind a classic Middle America upbringing, moving from a Southern sorority house into a scorpion-infested mud hut in order to live, work, and immerse herself in the culture of Guatemala’s poorest villagers. There she encountered seven local women—among them the wife of a political martyr, a twelve-year-old incest victim, and an escapee from house arrest—whose experiences unexpectedly illuminated her own. Shattering the concept of a typical memoir, the author’s personal story is interlaced, chapter-for-chapter, with tales told from the perspectives of these women she befriended. At once a coming-of-age adventure and a haunting history of the struggle to overcome oppression—both personal and cultural —this genre-breaching work is a paean to friendship and to the women of Central America.

HONORS:
BookSense “Notable” Selection

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