HALF MOON WAKING by Liv Hunziker

Half Moon Waking: 

Rising, Falling, and Walking

through Marriage, Motherhood, and Miscarriage

                                           Synopsis

Imagine: your unspoken questions being voiced by a stranger hiking the interior of West Papua. Blood, sweat, thirst and calloused feet are tied together through poetry and prose in this elevating novel for new mothers and new fathers. Pregnancy loss, miscarriage grief, and overwhelming infant care find healing and new purpose here in HALF MOON WAKING, dancing in partnership with haikus, outer space, and the discreet meaning of trees. 

Classical and modern poetry structures in this collection have been pressed into a parenting framework, and into a reflective adventure, in such a way that philosophers, nature-lovers, outdoorsmen, and outdoorswomen will each finally encounter an explorer who thinks and questions and enjoys the wilderness like him or herself. 

This nonfiction book is a must-read for tired new mothers and tired new fathers. Even through the asking of vulnerable questions, HALF MOON WAKING provides tangible support and guidance to family systems, fading spirits, and anyone grieving a miscarriage. The first third of the book contains mostly poetry, fiction, and essays written in the author’s early twenties (twenty years ago). A great majority of the pieces not pertaining to parenthood were written in 1999. The center of the book holds a reverent series of poetry: chronicling the author’s experience (ten years ago) of losing the family’s third baby at nine weeks. Miscarriage—and all the rolling waves of pain and confusion that storm in, uninvited, with a pregnancy loss. The final third of the novel reflects on the seasons of spring and winter, nature, and a deep love for outdoor adventure. Empathy for those families losing sleep due to sick kids fills the final sections of HALF MOON WAKING. 

Compassion pierces through every page of this encouraging book for deep-thinking adults, marriages facing difficulties, and primarily for any and all parents. With the diaper changes, with the sleepless nights, with the marriage tension or partner conflicts, so many parents seek some new zest for life. 

The author’s curiosity about pain, science, and existence, her writing that spins forests with comets with first love with cross-country skiing, her search for the truth that is hidden in muddy hiking trails and in livestock’s pasture; these all are the soulful writing techniques that can best bring readers the answers they’ve been hoping for, zeal for sharp winter winds they’d been ordinarily tackling alone, and solutions to the thirst which adventurers, lovers, overwhelmed fathers, and exhausted mothers just couldn’t yet put words to.