The question of who we are is as old as Story itself. In The Odyssey, the question for Odysseus’s son Telemachus leads to his search for his father. You can’t know who you are if you don’t know dad.

Describing her fourth book, written after the passing of her father, George Oscar Carlson, Carlson says:

The question becomes pretty complex when the father you’re searching for is also searching for his own answers. Reading this epic year after year, I have read a new story each time.

My relationship with this text was a tremendous source of support for me after I lost my father on April 8, 2020 as this Bronze-Age epic shone a light on the way home.

This work charts my journey to my father and to a better understanding of his gifts to me and of myself.