Ten Degrees of Reckoning

Comment now » // August 12th, 2009

One of the very best books I read in 2008 was a self-published account of a tragedy at sea.

Hester Rumberg has written a beautiful and heartbreaking book called Ten Degrees of Reckoning about a family who took to the sea to live a dream and found tragedy instead.

The Sleavin family (parents and two small children) had been living on board their boat and traveling the world for three years when a freighter ship ran into them in the dead of night, cutting the boat in half and killing everyone on board, except the mother, Judith.

I often read the book at night, lying on my back in bed, with tears streaming down my face into my ears. It is a tragedy almost beyond comprehension but Ms. Rumberg tells the story of the Sleavin’s, and Judith’s will to survive after the accident, with such sensitivity and clarity that I was left with enormous admiration for the author. What a difficult book this must have been to write. But I am grateful that she did.