The Long Way Home: A Journey of Survival by Craig Chapman
NEW RELEASE - OUT NOW
Twelve year old Craig Chapman was told that following the family tradition by going to boarding school was a privilege and that it would change his life. It certainly did, but not for the better.
Removed from his close-knit rural community and the familiarity of home and farm life, Craig was left at an imposing boarding school in Adelaide, South Australia. The trauma, abandonment and isolation he experienced for the next five years had consequences that would affect him for decades. His desperate attempts to hide the damage merely increased its impact.
Finally confronting his past, Craig begins a journey of healing. He must now learn how to free himself from the trauma before it consumes him completely. In doing so, he wrestles with the question of how much his now deceased father really knew about the devastating experience, simultaneously untangling a complex family history.
The Long Way Home explores the crushing reality of boarding school syndrome through the eyes of a survivor. It provides compelling evidence that it’s never too late to face past trauma, heal from the damage and find a new way forward.
ISBN: 9781764341424 222pp 153 x 234mm
Craig Chapman is a writer, blacksmith and podcast co-host from Aldinga Beach, South Australia. He is married to Sue and they have three adult children, a daughter-in-law, son-in-law and three grandchildren. He completed a Certificate in Creative Writing in 2015 and has pursued various forms of writing over many years, including poetry, fiction and non-fiction.
Craig is the author of the 2017 biblical fiction novel Succession Plan and has nine short stories published in the annual Stories of Life anthology from 2016 to 2022. His story Insight from a Blacksmith won the Stories of Life Short Category in 2022 and another story, Andy, was awarded second place in the same category in 2020.
Follow @craigchapmanbooks on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and Bluesky
