What happens when spiritual surrender becomes self-abandonment—and a woman must learn to trust herself again?
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What happens when spiritual surrender becomes self-abandonment—and a woman must learn to trust herself again? ✹
THE SHAMAN’S WIFE
AN AWARD-WINNING SPIRITUAL MEMOIR
“Too often we give away our power in one small surrender after another. The hard-won wisdom Alicia has poured into these pages—with authenticity and insight—will help you reclaim your power, reconnect to your courage, and use it to make the changes that tug most on your heart.”
—Dr. Margie Warrell, bestselling author of You’ve Got This: The Life-Changing Power of Trusting Yourself
Alicia M. Rodriguez’s award-winning memoir is an intimate journey through love, spiritual awakening, devotion and the shadow side of surrender—and the long road back to intuition, identity and inner authority.
Kirkus Reviews:
“A sometimes-harrowing story of spirituality, trust and a search for identity.”
Winner of multiple book awards. The Shaman’s Wife is an award-winning memoir about a woman who surrenders her own wisdom to a charismatic spiritual teacher—and the difficult journey of learning to trust herself again.
Winner of multiple book awards. The Shaman’s Wife is an award-winning memoir about a woman who surrenders her own wisdom to a charismatic spiritual teacher—and the difficult journey of learning to trust herself again.
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Alicia M. Rodriguez’s award-winning memoir is an intimate journey through love, spiritual awakening, devotion and the shadow side of surrender—and the long road back to intuition, identity and inner authority.
Four international book honors · Winner, International Book Awards—Narrative Nonfiction · 50+ five-star Amazon ratings
A sometimes-harrowing story of spirituality, trust and a search for identity.
KIRKUS REVIEWS
Who is this book for?
For readers who enjoyed Eat, Pray, Love but longed for something deeper, darker, and more spiritually complex.
For readers drawn to the shadow side of spiritual seeking
The Shaman’s Wife speaks to readers of memoirs such as Chasing Nirvana and The Secret Practice—stories in which a woman’s search for spiritual truth leads her to surrender her own wisdom to a charismatic spiritual teacher, and eventually to confront what it will take to reclaim herself.
At its heart is a question many women will recognize:
What happens when trusting someone else’s wisdom teaches you not to trust your own?
The Shaman’s Wife is an award-winning memoir about a woman who surrenders her own wisdom to a charismatic spiritual teacher—and the difficult journey of learning to trust herself again.
What happens when surrendering to love means surrendering yourself?
After divorce and profound loss, successful entrepreneur Alicia M. Rodriguez accepts an invitation to Ecuador that alters the course of her life. There she enters the mysterious world of shamanic tradition—and falls in love with Napo, a charismatic and powerful shaman.
What begins as a journey of spiritual awakening becomes an extraordinary eight-year relationship. Alicia leaves behind the life she built in the United States, immerses herself in the landscapes and traditions of Ecuador, and dreams of creating a healing center with the man she loves.
But as love, spirituality, power and dependence become increasingly entangled, Alicia confronts a more difficult initiation: recognizing the ways she has abandoned her own knowing and finding the courage to reclaim it.
Her eventual departure from Ecuador takes her across another ocean to Portugal—but leaving is only the beginning. The deeper journey is learning to trust herself again.
The Shaman’s Wife is an award-winning memoir about spiritual longing, love, intuition, identity and the shadow side of surrender. Both mystical and unflinchingly human, it explores the subtle ways women give away their authority—and what becomes possible when they take it back.
Why this story matters
The question beneath the story
I once thought I had written a memoir about falling in love with a shaman. With distance, I understand that I wrote something else as well: a story about how an intelligent, capable woman can slowly stop listening to herself.
The deeper journey was not leaving a man or leaving Ecuador. It was learning to distinguish surrender from self-abandonment, spiritual trust from the surrender of discernment, and another person’s authority from my own inner knowing.
That is the journey at the heart of The Shaman’s Wife.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
About Alicia M. Rodriguez
Alicia M. Rodriguez is an award-winning Latina author of memoir, reflective nonfiction and poetry whose work explores spirituality, identity, belonging and personal transformation. Born in the United States to Colombian parents, she has lived in six countries and writes from the perspective of a woman shaped by multiple cultures, landscapes and ways of understanding the world.
Her books include The Shaman’s Wife: A Mystical Journey of Surrender and Self-Discovery, Everyday Epiphanies, Between Root and Sky, and Manage Your Life Before Life Manages You. Her writing has appeared in literary, mindfulness and personal-growth publications, and she now lives and writes in the Algarve, Portugal.
The experiences recounted in The Shaman’s Wife span the United States, Ecuador and Portugal and became the foundation for Alicia’s continuing exploration of intuition, self-trust, spiritual discernment and the thresholds that change a life.
Invite Alicia to your book club
Alicia is available to join selected book-club conversations virtually or in person locally.
For Book Clubs and Reading Groups
The Shaman’s Wife opens conversations about spiritual authority, self-trust, intuition, identity, love, power, cultural belonging and what it means to reclaim yourself after surrendering too much of who you are.
The Companion Journal & Book Club Guide includes discussion questions and reflective prompts designed for deeper conversation.
Details & Summary
The Shaman’s Wife: A Mystical Journey of Surrender and Self-Discovery; Alicia M. Rodriguez; She Writes Press; September 10, 2024; Paperback ISBN 9781647427566; eBook ISBN 9781647427573; 248 pages; available in paperback, ebook and audiobook.
“What is The Shaman’s Wife about?”
The Shaman’s Wife is an award-winning memoir by Alicia M. Rodriguez about an eight-year relationship with an Ecuadorian shaman and the spiritual, emotional and psychological journey that led her from surrendering her own authority to reclaiming her intuition and self-trust.
“Is The Shaman’s Wife a true story?”
Yes. The memoir recounts Alicia Rodriguez’s lived experiences across the United States, Ecuador and Portugal and her immersion in the world of shamanic tradition, love, spiritual seeking and personal transformation.
“Who is this memoir for?”
It is for readers drawn to women’s transformational memoirs, spiritual memoir, stories of self-discovery and reinvention, and explorations of what happens when spiritual surrender begins to silence one’s own inner knowing.
“Where does the memoir take place?”
The story moves between the United States, the Andes and Pacific coast of Ecuador, and Portugal, where Alicia eventually begins rebuilding her life.
“Is The Shaman’s Wife available as an audiobook?”
Yes. The Shaman’s Wife is available in paperback, ebook and audiobook, (Audible, Spotify, more) with the audiobook narrated by Alicia M. Rodriguez.