Permission to Fly: A Memoir of Love, Crushing Loss, and Triumph Paperback – June 11, 2019

“If Layng Martine Jr. was only a prose stylist, he would be outstanding. Add to that a deep core of music, a joyous sense of adventure, and an abiding and healing love for his family, and you have an artist in the truest sense of the word. I loved this book.”

—Anne Rivers Siddons

“PERMISSION TO FLY is a love letter to the journey of a free life. If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like to live out your life’s dreams, to pursue your passions against the odds, and to love with all you’ve got, this is the book to grab now. Charming, humorous and inspirational, this is a read that will both enchant and enrich.”

—Patti Callahan Henry, New York Times bestselling author of Becoming Mrs. Lewis

Permission to Fly is about a passion for living, victory of the human spirit in the face of adversity, and maybe the best true love story you’ll ever read. Warning: this book is addictive and very hard to put down.

—Bobby Braddock, Member of The Country Music Hall of Fame and The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, co-writer of D-I-V-O-R-C-E, and He Stopped Loving Her Today

Layng and his wife, Linda, have lived extraordinary lives, partly by their own choices and partly by fates completely out of their control. Permission to Fly is a joy to read as you watch Layng take the lessons he was given as a child and form them into a life worth living.

—Robert Hicks, New York Times bestselling author of The Widow of the South and A Separate Country

This is a gorgeous book…intensely funny, poignantly, achingly sad, related by the master storyteller who lived it. You can pick up the book and begin anywhere. What you cannot do is put the book down.

—John S. Beasley ll, Vice-Chancellor, Emeritus, Vanderbilt University and inveterate reader

“Author of a NEW YORK TIMES most-emailed Modern Love column”

LAYNG MARTINE JR. grew up in Fairfield County, Connecticut. He and his wife Linda now live in Nashville, Tennessee where they raised their three grown sons. Layng is a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame and the author of a NEW YORK TIMES most-emailed Modern Love essay. He was educated at Denison University and Columbia University.