My Marriage Sabbatical
Leah Fisher
She Writes Press (2025)
ISBN: 978-1647427344
Reviewed by Paul Knobloch for Reader Views (01/2026)
Leah Fisher, in her insightful new memoir, My Marriage Sabbatical: A Memoir of Solo Travel and Lasting Love, shows us just how a break and some travel, while getting centered and refocused, could be just the ticket for later in life. Especially when times are hard and one is questioning one’s commitment and trying to lay claim to one’s own agency.
The book opens with a harrowing scene. The author, facing marital ennui, mourning the death of her father, and missing the kids who’ve now flown the coop, is not coping with these events as well as she’d like. This will ultimately lead to her decision to take a break from her marriage. Her husband, Charley, is not a bad egg by any means, but he does have some pretty blatant double standards, as we will come to discover later on. In any case, he is stunned and clearly upset, but he doesn’t stop her, and she moves out for a month to share a Berkeley house with two single women, a yoga teacher/massage therapist and a nonprofit philanthropy worker.
Eventually, the sabbatical leads to an extended set of travels around the globe. At one point, she even has an Ayahuasca experience in Ecuador, and it is movingly recounted. As someone who writes about psychedelics, I found it very relatable, as many are discovering the powerful healing and learning opportunities hidden in plant medicines. It’s around this time that Charley verbalizes the double standard:
I’m sure. For one thing, it would only happen out of town. And I would be completely up front about our situation, so there would be no confusion… I wouldn’t be comfortable if you had sex with someone else while we’re apart. I know it’s not fair, but that’s how I feel.
I found the chapter on Cuba especially poignant, for here we see Fisher coming into her own, dealing not with symbolic, but very real problems, and questioning the role of the US: “Our long US embargo makes no sense in a post-communist world and will surely be lifted soon.”
I’d like to hope so.
In the end, we see how a heterodox approach to marital problems and a feeling of grief and stagnation may, in the end, turn out to be exactly what the doctor ordered. Fisher’s book deals with the big questions, and some are left for the reader to negotiate for themselves. How do you honor your own needs and unlived dreams while still honoring your partner and the partnership, and what boundaries keep that bond intact when you try something unconventional?
It takes courage to ask the big questions, and Fisher, in My Marriage Sabbatical, does not balk, giving us a memoir that proves that sometimes, the best solution is the one few people ever consider.
At a Glance: A reflective travel memoir about a woman who steps away from her long-term marriage to navigate grief, identity, and personal fulfillment. Through solo living, international journeys, and self-exploration, she examines how independence and partnership can coexist. Mature themes, including marriage, loss, and alternative healing practices.
Best for Readers Who Enjoy: travel memoirs, midlife reinvention, marriage and relationships, empty nest experiences, grief and healing, women’s personal growth journeys, solo travel adventures, unconventional life choices, memoirs about self-discovery, later-in-life transformation