The Maine Coast Book Shop is hosting an exciting line up of events in June to kick off our Summer Celebration of Books. On Saturday June 7th , Buddhist monk and author Jaed Coffin will discuss and sign his new book, "A Chant to Soothe Wild Elephants", from 1pm until 3pm. In this affecting and colorful memoir, Coffin relates tales from his childhood and the complications that arise from being the offspring of an interracial couple in the late 1970s. Coffin's father was a U.S. soldier who met his mother in Taiwan during the Vietnam War. Not long after they venture to America to start a new life, Coffin's parents separated and he and his younger sister, moved to Brunswick Maine with their mother.
Coffin was taken back to his mother's Taiwanese village several times during his childhood, and, on one occasion, encountered an elderly Buddhist priest who claimed the boy should come and live as a monk. Years later as a university student, he returned to the village to become a monk in the hopes of finding himself and his true identity. He meditated and learned prayers and chants, but often found himself alone in his room, sleeping on the floor next to his Buddha statue until he begans to question whether he wass meant for the life of a monk. In heartfelt prose, Coffin beautifully captures his journey, both geographical and internal.
