Hope for the Wrong Thing

Caroline Kurtz

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Paperback

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English

Catalyst Books
17 June 2025

Autobiography: general; Autobiography: religious & spiritual

In Hope for the Wrong Thing, Caroline Kurtz solo hikes the rugged, beautiful Oregon Coast--an expedition of isolation, adventure, joy, and grief inside the emotional wilderness of finding one's identity after the death of a loved one.

In her third memoir, Portland-based author Caroline Kurtz travels the coast of Oregon on foot in her late sixties, tracing the boundary of sand and salt water, rock and forests, carrying her shelter and food as she navigates the edges of solace and resolution after the death of her husband. During her journey, Kurtz grieves as she reflects on her long, and at times rocky, marriage to Mark, whom she had known and loved since she was a teenager in boarding school in Ethiopia. As she navigates the adventures encountered along the trail-leaky tents, hitching rides, chance encounters, and beautiful landscapes-she intertwines the historical events of coastal Oregon with her spiritual experience, giving space for the shattering of an old identity and the planting of a new self, nourished and enlightened by the depths of a profoundly complex and considered life.

Kurtz spent her early years in Oregon before her parents moved her and her siblings to remote Ethiopia, where she spent her childhood and teen years, before returning to America for college, where she reunited with and married Mark. The two lived variously in Portland, Ethiopia, and Kenya, and retired to Portland, where Caroline now lives.

By: Caroline Kurtz
Imprint: Catalyst Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 228mm, Width: 152mm,
ISBN: 9781960803177
ISBN 10: 1960803174
Publication Date: 17 June 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Caroline KurtzAfter her husband Mark died in 2013, Caroline started a nonprofit organization to bring solar energy and women's development to Maji, still beyond the grid, in the corner of Ethiopia where she grew up. See DevelopMaji.org and https://carolinekurtzauthor.com/ for more information. She now lives in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews for Hope for the Wrong Thing

""[Kurtz] is an artistic wordsmith, and it was my privilege to have her as my right arm at Wunlit where the people made their peace become real, mal mi chum-chum, sweet peace, for a time."" -- Bill Lowrey, Facilitator of Wunlit (South Sudan) People-to-People peace conference""[R]eal, raw and truly a sacred story... Kurtz shares her personal vulnerability with readers, creating not just an intellectual exploration of cross-cultural differences, but rather a heart-wrenching witness of what it means to give one's whole life...not knowing whether one's hopes or intentions will be realized. I recommend her story to anyone willing to dive deep into their own heart to face the haunting challenges and contradictions of seeking to do God's will when there are no simple solutions."" -- Rev Dr. Sue Hudson, The Presbyterian Outlook