Untamed. Unsupervised. Uncontrolled.
Boyhood in the 1960s and ‘70s was a time for exploration and mischief. Author Michael Tougias found more than his share of misadventures in the woods and on the water: some life-threatening but others innocently hilarious.
Over time – and after reading a multitude of adventure books -- these experiences took shape in his quest to be a mountain man, owning a cabin in the forest and living off the land. Part of that dream would come true, but only after a family tragedy that shook his world and forced changes in his life.
This is also a story of a complex and strained relationship between father and son, the efforts at understanding, and ultimately respect and devotion.
In The Waters Between Us Tougias channels Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods” to mix laugh out loud humor with insight into the natural world through the eyes of a curious boy.
Tougias is a New York Times Bestselling author and co-author of 31 books, including There’s A Porcupine In My Outhouse (Winner of the Independent Publishers “Best Nature Book of the Year”) and The Finest Hours (inspiration for a 2016 Disney movie). He has received many writing awards.
Michael Tougias is a writer who was born in Longmeadow, Massachusetts in 1955. He writes about maritime, travel, and adventure topics. He is a N.Y. Times Bestselling author of 25 books.
An avid fisherman, Tougias became a self-syndicated outdoors writer in 1990. At the time he was also managing a division of a major insurance company. He published the first of his books in 1998.
He travels to more than 100 small and large speaking engagements a year to discuss his books and other topics, including "Survival Stories," lessons learned from those who were shipwrecked. U.S. Coast Guardsmen and sailors are frequent audiences; Tougias last six books have been accounts of historic sea rescues by the Coast Guard, often in the Gulf Stream. His book The Finest Hours: The True Story Behind the US Coast Guards Most Daring Rescue (2009), co-authored with Casey Sherman, was adapted as a Disney film by the same name, released in 2016.
Tougias is a frequent guest on NPR programs, The Weather Channel, Fox & Friends, 20/20, and national talk shows.
He lives in Mendon, Massachusetts and Hobe Sound, Florida.
Praise for Books by Michael J. Tougias
The Finest Hours: The True Story of the U.S. Coast Guard’s Most Daring Sea Rescue (co-authored with Casey Sherman)
“A blockbuster account of tragedy at sea…gives a ‘you-are-there’ feel.” —The Providence Journal
“A gripping read!” —James Bradley, author of Flags of Our Fathers
Overboard! A True Bluewater Odyssey of Disaster and Survival
“A heart-pounding account of the storm that tore apart a forty-five-foot sailboat. Author Michael Tougias is the master of the weather-related disaster book.” —The Boston Globe
“Overboard is a beautiful story deserving of a good cry.” —Gatehouse News Service
“Tougias has a knack for weaving thoroughly absorbing stories – adventure fans need this one! —Booklist
Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Tale of Disaster and Survival at Sea
“A passionately recounted peril-at-sea adventure...described with excruciating intensity. A blustery seafarers delight, rendered with gusto.” —Kirkus Reviews
“Tougias spins a marvelous and terrifying yarn....this is a breathtaking book.” —Los Angeles Times
“Tougiass terrifying tale will stun you...leaving you breathless, exhilarated, and finally amazed.” —The Providence Journal
“Ernie Hazard’s experiences, as related by Tougias, deserve a place as a classic of sea survival history.”—The Boston Globe
“Tougias spins a dramatic saga. . . . (He) has written eighteen books and this is among his most gripping.” —National Geographic Adventure Magazine
Ten Hours Until Dawn
“The best story of peril at sea since Sebastian Junger’s Perfect Storm. Superb!” —Booklist
“What a story! Tougias’ research and writing make the reader feel as if they are onboard the Can Do during the Blizzard of ’78.” —Governor Michael Dukakis
“An incredible tale of heroism and sacrifice.” —Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award Winner
Selected as an American Library Association as an Editor’s Choice and “Top Book of the Year”
Ten Hours audio book won Audiofiles “Earphones Award.”
A Storm Too Soon
“By depicting the event from the perspective of both the rescued and the rescuers and focusing only on key moments and details, Tougias creates a suspenseful, tautly rendered story that leaves readers breathless but well-satisfied. Heart-pounding action for the avid armchair adventurer.” —Kirkus Reviews
“The riveting, meticulously researched “A Storm Too Soon” tells the true-life tale of an incredible rescue” —New York Post
“Tougias deftly switches from heart-pounding details of the rescue to the personal stories of the boat’s crew and those of the rescue team. The result is a well-researched and suspenseful read.” —Publishers Weekly
“Already a maven of maritime books with Overboard! and Fatal Forecast, Tougias cinches that title here. Working in the present tense Tougias lets the story tell itself, and what a story! Any one reading (A Storm Too Soon) will laud Tougias’ success.”
—Providence Journal
“The Waters Between Us is a song of praise to the outdoors, an apology for boyhood misunderstandings, and a loving appreciation for a father whose grace, joy and kindness remained steadfast in the face of tragedy. Young Michael Tougias reminds me of Huck Finn, and its great fun to accompany him on his river adventures. But even more rewarding is the compassion he has gained in hindsight. Youll be grateful to the boy, the man he became, and the father who quietly nurtured them both for this unforgettable memoir.”—Sy Montgomery, National Book Award Finalist and NY Times Bestselling Author of Soul of an Octopus
“More than just another outdoors book, Michael explores the complex and often challenging relationship between a father and son that any father or son can relate to. This book will make you smile, laugh and nod your head in agreement. The natural world is Michael’s place of inspiration and solace and healing and this book will take you there too.”—Tom Reed, author of Give Me Mountains for My Horses and Columnist for TROUT magazine
“I loved it! Tougias’s wonderful memoir celebrates a time before cell phones and social media cluttered our lives; when a kid could drape a fishing rod across the handlebars of his bike and find high adventure in the woods and streams around him.”—Stephen Sautner, author of Fish On, Fish Off and A Cast in the Woods
"Reading “The Waters Between Us” is like sitting down and listening to Tougias spin yarns of his sometimes harrowing (mis)adventures during his youth. Some of the predicaments are nail-biting, such as a near-death experience where he and his friend get tossed into a freezing gorge while rafting down Vermont’s Huntington River. But throughout, Tougias tells of his misadventures so amusingly that you keep turning the page to see what kind of trouble he will get into next."
—Abby Remer, Marthas Vineyard Times
“A coming of age story that everyone will enjoy because it is so well written.”—WBZ Book Club, New England’s most powerful radio station
“As if channeling Huckleberry Finn, Henry David Thoreau and James Dean, Tougias has written a funny, insightful and finally profound autobiography”—Metro West Daily News
“Tougias tells of his misadventures so amusingly that you keep turning the page to see what kind of trouble he will get into next. And the yearning for a close relationship [with his father] wends its way throughout the book. “Many of the adventures caused my father to question my sanity, and tested his patience … I was a wild kid and a magnet for trouble,” writes the author. “I learned a lot from him — not by talking but by observing.” – Marthas Vineyard Times
“When a life-altering tragedy strikes his family after an event of shared happiness, Tougias artfully weaves together memories of his fathers and mothers tireless devotion. In this touching memoir, Tougias comically and poignantly describes his long struggle to reach across that gulf that separated him from all he needed to finally find peace.” – Gannett News
“Tougias’ travels encourage reflection of our own childhoods and passages while eagerly turning his pages, immersed in new adventures, lamenting only that each page turned brings us closer to his last.” – Outdoor Columnist Todd Corayer “Fish Wrap”
“Much of the books emotional power comes from Tougias success evoking his special places…” — The Cape Codder
“It’s a story with plenty of comical moments but “The Waters Between Us” also recounts a tragedy that brought a reckoning for Tougias and his family — and his father’s response to that incident gave his son a better appreciation for his dad’s values and ultimately brought the two closer.” – Daily Hampshire Gazette
“Tougias carries readers through his itchy adolescence to his restless young adulthood by skillfully balancing his comic misadventures with a deepening passion for nature as a source of joy and peace that often eludes him elsewhere.”— Country Gazette
Bestselling author Michael J. Tougias (whose 34 books include “There’s a Porcupine in My Outhouse” and co-writing “The Finest Hours”) recounts years of misadventures in the woods and on the water (both dangerous and comical) and his goal to live in a cabin and become “a mountain man.” The book also looks at a family tragedy that changed Tougias’ life, and explores his complex relationship with his father: “the journey from misunderstanding, disappointment, and hostility to love, acceptance and admiration.” -- Cape Cod Times
"Bestselling author Michael J. Tougias (whose 34 books include There’s a Porcupine in My Outhouse and co-writing The Finest Hours) recounts years of misadventures in the woods and on the water (both dangerous and comical) and his goal to live in a cabin and become a mountain man. The book also looks at a family tragedy that changed Tougias’ life, and explores his complex relationship with his father: the journey from misunderstanding, disappointment, and hostility to love, acceptance and admiration." —Cape Cod Times
“When a life-altering tragedy strikes his family after an event of shared happiness, Tougias artfully weaves together memories of his fathers and mothers tireless devotion. In this touching memoir, Tougias comically and poignantly describes his long struggle to reach across that gulf that separated him from all he needed to finally find peace.” – Gannett News
“Tougias’ travels encourage reflection of our own childhoods and passages while eagerly turning his pages, immersed in new adventures, lamenting only that each page turned brings us closer to his last.” – Outdoor Columnist Todd Corayer“Fish Wrap”
“Much of the books emotional power comes from Tougias success evoking his special places…”—The Cape Codder
"The only task quite so fraught as a boy negotiating his relationship with his father is that of a father negotiating his relationship with his son. Three books offer variations on the eternal theme.
"In Michael Tougias’s memoir, “The Waters Between Us” (Lyons, 240 pages, $26.95), the author writes about growing up as a rambunctious boy in the 1960s, the last time parents sent their children outdoors with no instructions except not to do anything stupid and to be home by dark. Mr. Tougias usually managed the second part.
"The book is about his outdoor adventures, the troubled relationship between a “spirited” boy and his father, and the healing power of the natural world. It’s in no way a knock against Mr. Tougias as a writer to say that a photo in the book most succinctly sums up this situation. It shows young Michael in his bedroom looking at the camera as his father holds up a small bass that the boy has caught. The father, in profile, is laughing or smiling, delighting in his son’s delight. And Michael does look triumphant, even if he’s still fearful of holding the fish himself. But there’s something in his eyes—a wildness, almost a mania—that hints at the rocky road ahead. A kid with undiagnosed ADHD (it was the ’60s) who will set school records for detention? Check. A kid who confounds—seemingly tortures—his parents with his inability to follow the simplest of rules? Check. A kid who will nearly drown playing on the too-thin ice of a pond, who’ll nearly be swept out to sea in a riptide in Maine, who’ll nearly perish on a stupid run down a raging river in a kid’s rubber raft? Check, check and check.
"Along with his father’s love, the other constant in the boy’s life—and the thing Mr. Tougias credits with saving him from more serious trouble—is his love of the outdoors, a dynamo of fascination and adventure, a place that draws him back endlessly. Always in the background is his father, who leaves the house before anyone else is awake and labors physically for 50 or 60 hours a week, coming home too exhausted to attend his son’s games. Michael knows his father loves him but isn’t sure the man likes him, which is what he craves. As anyone who has played a part in this ancient drama knows, there’s no single moment of reconciliation. It comes with time, incrementally. And it’s not the father who changes."
—Ben Wiseman, The Wall Street Journal
