My Second Life by Simon Yeats

Today is my stop on the blog tour for My Second Life by Simon Yeats, which focuses not on his many travel adventures but, rather, his battle for access to his son. My thanks to Rachel Gilbey at Rachel's Random Resources for the invitation and to the author for my review copy of the book.

The Blurb

Right at this moment, my abducted son is being abused in another country and there is nothing I can do about it other than write this book to get publicity for his story.

We all have two lives. We only get to experience living in the second after we realize we only have just one.

I have my first real scare in life when I get attacked by a kangaroo when I am seven. My first brush with the cliff-face edge of death comes when I am 12. My dad drives the family down the dangerous Skipper’s Canyon dirt road in New Zealand in a rented minivan.

Including the occasion I am almost involved in two different plane flight crashes in the same night, there have been at least a half dozen more occasions when I have been within a moment’s inattention of being killed.

However, none of those frightening incidents compare to what I experience after my son is abducted.

This memoir is the story of how I used the traumatic experiences of my life to give me strength to forge on during a 13 year fight to be a father to my son.

What did it take for me to get to my second life?
It took me to truly understand what fear is.


Purchase Links

Amazon UK 
Amazon US 
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Kobo 
Smashwords 

My Review

I recently read one of Simon Yeats's travel memoirs, How to Start a Riot in a Brothel in Thailand by Ordering a Beer..., so know that he could tell an entertaining yarn, but this book has a very different tone. The title comes from the Confucious saying 'We all have two lives. And the second one begins when we realise we only have one' and this is Yeats's story of the extraordinary circumstances that brought him to his second life.  

Before I start, I will say there were a couple of things I struggled with. It is written entirely in the present tense even though much of what is being described took place in the past, which does lead to some confusion here and there. And as with his travel memoir, this book would've benefited from a much tighter edit. 

But these things don't detract from what he is saying. A lot of what is written sounds unbelievable, but Yeats is aware of this and reassures us that every word is true. Much of the first half of the book is dedicated to some of Yeats's terrifying brushes with death - I was slightly confused though when he was about to plunge down an almost sheer cliff of snow and ice at the end of one chapter and in a car accident in the next - and they are incredible to read, real heart in the mouth stuff. His point in telling us though, is that none of these brought him to his second life. 

The second part of the book is the real story here - Yeats's long, arduous and ongoing battles for access to his son, who is currently with his mother in Brazil - Yeats is an Australian living in the US. I won't go into detail here about it, you'd not believe me anyway if I did, but it's utterly heartbreaking to read, with occasional utterly joyful moments on the odd time he has been able to see his son. I was moved to tears many times. I am aware, of course, that we are only hearing one side of a story here but it would seem that there has been no level of justice given in this case and Mr Yeats does not seem to have been given any opportunity to state his case or mount any meaningful legal battle. And there is much, much more than that, as you will see if you read this book. 

I must also mention a couple of things from Yeats's work as a physical therapist. This is a dedicated man with a calling to his job. I had wet eyes reading about David and Jacob, whose father first made Yeats aware of the Confucious saying. You will be touched by these stories, as well as the main, important one here. I was also moved by the author's stories of his own father, the love he has for him and strong model of fatherhood he has obviously set. 

My Second Life is a hard to read in places, shocking in many and almost unbelievable in plenty of others. It's a tale of one man's long hard fight to see his son that will resonate with many but particularly those of us who.are parents. I cried for him and I cried for his son but it's a book I am glad to have read. 


The Author

Simon Yeats has lived nine lives, and by all estimations, is fast running out of the number he has left. His life of globetrotting the globe was not the one he expected to lead. He grew up a quiet, shy boy teased by other kids on the playgrounds for his red hair. But he developed a keen wit and sense of humor to always see the funnier side of life.

With an overwhelming love of travel, a propensity to find trouble where there was none, and being a passionate advocate of mental health, Simon’s stories will leave a reader either rolling on the floor in tears of laughter, or breathing deeply that the adventures he has had were survived.

No author has laughed longer or cried with less restraint at the travails of life.


Author Social Media Links

Tik Tok https://www.tiktok.com/@authoryeats
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/authoryeats/?hl=en