by Shelley Saywell (Author)
AN INSTANT NATIONAL BESTSELLER
A HEATHER'S PICK
An astonishing memoir of love's enduring power, resilience and transformation,
If Only Love is a celebration of the timeless connection between two souls--a real-life love story for the ages.
In 1973, a seventeen-year-old Canadian girl meets an American boy on her first day of school in Japan and falls in love, not realizing that he is also a goner for her. When they finally connect, they only have two months together before school's out and she has to head home. Bad timing and swirling emotion botch their attempt to stay together and they fall out of touch. Long after she loses him, she still thinks of him, and even sets out on a journey to find him, one that fails in the most traumatic of ways.
Thirty years later--after her award-winning documentary career has taken her to the most dangerous of places pursuing the toughest of stories--Daniel Peterson's name pops up in an email in Shelley Saywell's inbox, delivering them both a second chance at love. Soon they are edging towards each other in a soul-baring exchange of emails that slowly confirms that their teenage love was real. For fifteen years, they are bonded in life and in love, only to have their marriage cut short when Daniel is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
By braiding together the strands of time--threads of first love enhancing threads of grief, a magic reunion undone by final separation--Saywell reveals the power of memory and the healing magic of love. In his last moments, she asks Daniel, "Can we do this again?" and he replies, "We'll do it again, only better." Hard to imagine any two people doing love better, or any writer creating a more touching, revelatory story and testament to the heart.
Author Biography
SHELLEY SAYWELL is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and author whose work bears witness to life in some of the world's most desperate places. Saywell has written, directed and produced more than twenty independent documentary films, telling stories of struggle and conflict, the fight for justice and the power of hope. Her films, including A Child's Century of War, Kim's Story, Out of the Fire and Martyr Street have been shown in more than thirty countries and won numerous awards, including an Emmy for Investigative Journalism. Saywell has been personally honoured with the WIFT Creative Excellence Award and a UNESCO Gandhi Medal for the Promotion of Peace. Her memoir, If Only Love, is the story of the great love and events that shaped her life behind the lens.
Number of Pages: 304
Dimensions: 1.2 x 8.2 x 5.6 IN
Publication Date: January 13, 2026
