Hope as My Compass is a best-selling memoir set in Canada and Australia...a stranger than fiction, true life story nominated for the National Biography Prize - first published by Random House Australia as Who Says I Can’t and then McArthur Press in Canada as Serendipity Road.

On the cover, the late Bryce Courtenay, best-selling author of Power of One, says: "Story of hope and perseverance - when’s the movie?"

Starting life in an orphanage in Calgary, Catherine DeVrye was adopted by loving parents. When she was 21, they both died of cancer, within a year of each other. An only child, Catherine packed her bags for a three-month working holiday in Australia, arriving jobless and near penniless....

This led to a lifelong journey to find her place in the world, as she waited tables, taught school, worked on a mine site and as a senior public servant. She then joined IBM with postings to Tokyo, Hong Kong, and New York. Named Australian Executive Woman of the Year, Catherine found herself dining with princes, prime ministers, and Olympic athletes. She’d cycled over the Andes, dived with sharks, and climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Yet, still something was missing. So, eventually, Catherine decided to search for her biological parents. And that’s when her adventures really began...as she saw her birth father inducted into the Rodeo Hall of Fame.

If you’ve ever felt alone and hopeless, laugh and cry through Catherine’s story, and become more empowered to turn your own stumbling blocks into stepping-stones.

Catherine DeVrye is based in Sydney and travels the world sharing her life experiences as a conference speaker.