Book Synopsis: And Then I Am Gone: A Walk with Thoreau: tells the story of a New York City Man who becomes a Alabama man. Despite his radical migration to simpler living and a late-life marriage to a saint of sorts, his persistent pet anxieties and unanswerable questions follow him. Mathias Freese wants his retreat from the societal "it" to be a brave safari for the self rather than cowardly avoidance, so who better to guide him but Henry David Thoreau, the self-aware philosopher who retreated to Walden Pond "to live deliberately" and cease " the hurry and waste of life"? In this memoir, Freese wishes to share how and why he came to Harvest, Alabama (both literally and figuratively), to impart his existential, impressions and concerns, and to leave his mark before he is gone.






I have to be honest with you. I don't normally read biographies or memoirs but when Nurture Your Books asked me if I wanted to be a part of this tour, I had to say yes. Mr. Freese's book is well written and kept me interested until he end. I come from Alabama. I was born and raised here and I have family that live in the Carolinas so when I saw this work I knew I had to read it. I know some of the places he speaks of in his book. I've been to some them a hundred times so I really enjoyed reading about someone who came all the way from New York to make his home here. Praise to, And Then I am Gone.

Title: And Then I Am Gone: A Walk with Thoreau 

Author: Mathias B. Freese

Genre: Nonfiction-Memoir/Biography

Formats. Paperback & eBook

Published by: Wheatmark

ISBN-13: 978-1627875387

Pub. Date: September 21, 2017

Number of pages: 117

Content Warning: N/A

Purchase at Amazon.com, Amazon.ca,Amazon.co.uk, and Barnes&Noble.com

Guest Post with Mathias B. Freese:

Please Compare/Contrast New York to Alabama and talk about why you moved. Feel free to talk about the moving process as well.

I went to the woods to paraphrase my Thoreauvian friend, because my wife comes from South Carolina (I elaborate on this in the book: on moving to Capshaw.) The culture shock has been significant for me: trying to understand Southern patois; Southern attitudes and mannerisms, to wit, "Sir" is commonly alive in sentences and chatter. I speak New York fast and I get Southern drawl. Politically, OUCH! I am in the land of Moore and Sessions, discomforting and disconcerting, to say the least. Football is god down here and churches of all kinds are throughout the area. I can't find a good Jewish Deli. As to moving, it is always a horror, boxes misplaced or lost. However, the trip of 1800 miles as described in my book is striking and at times stunning. Physically, at least in Harvest, the environment is beautiful, particularly in autumn; however, stinkbugs, copperheads and water moccasins are my bosom buddies. I think of Woody Allen trying to kill a cockroach with a tennis racket in one of his delirious early movies. I feel safe: my wife has skinned animals and packs a magnum. 

Author Bio:  MATHIAS B. FREESE is a multi-published, award-winning author, writer, teacher and psychotherapist.

Book Awards:

• The i Tetrology: All Books Review Editor's Choice Award 2017
• Down to a Sunless Sea: National Indie Excellence Book Awards 2007 & 
• AllBooks Reviews Editor's Choice Award 2007
• This Mobius Strip of Ifs: National Indie (Winner) Book Awards, 2012 & Global Ebook Award finalist, 2012
• I Truly Lament: Working Through the Holocaust: Finalist in the 2012 Leapfrog Press Fiction Contest out of 424 submissions, Beverly Hills Book Awards, Finalist readers'
• Readers Favorites, Five Stars; Indie Excellence Book Awards, Finalist Readers
• Favorite, Book Award Winner-Bronze medal
• Tesserae: A Memoir of Two Summers: 2016 Los Angeles Book Festival Honorable Mention, Great Northwest Book Festival Winner in Biography/Autobiography
• Category, Runner-Up in General Non-fiction Category in the San Francisco Book Festival, Winner for General Non-Fiction in The Beach Book Festival & Runner-Up in General Non-Fiction in the Paris Book Festival