POUGHKEEPSIE JOURNAL

Wreck and Order’ a tumultuous ride

Drawing from her own personal life experience, Hudson Valley resident Hannah Tennant-Moore’s debut novel, Wreck and Order, was written after finding herself at a crossroads in life. After completing a master’s in fine arts in nonfiction, she set off for a two-month journey to Sri Lanka, to “examine her longtime interest in Buddhism.”

Elise is the main character in Wreck and Order, who as a twenty-something, is trying to find her way in life. Disinterested in college, she uses her father’s inheritance to travel to indulge in a life of adventure. While struggling with the spontaneity in her life, Elise settles into a job writing obituaries for a small-town newspaper in California and engaging in a heated, self-destructive affair with a man. When she breaks free of him and the job, she settles into a new life in Brooklyn that is secure but emotionally suffocating and disappointing.

Her life takes a turn when she rekindles her love interest and finds herself on a path to self-destruction. It is then that she decides to travel to Sri Lanka, where she once had some of the best moments in her life. But her quest for peace and happiness is riddled with challenges and she finds herself making many mistakes - culturally, spiritually and sexually.

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