Memoir
All the Way to the River
by Elizabeth Gilbert
Quick take
Elizabeth Gilbert bares her soul in this joyful and shattering memoir of grief, love, and addiction in all its forms.
Good to know
Famous author
LGBTQ+ themes
Sad
Drug & alcohol use
Synopsis
Twenty years ago, Elizabeth Gilbert’s Eat Pray Love inspired millions of readers to embark upon their own journeys of self-discovery. A decade later, Big Magic empowered countless others to live their most creative lives. Now comes another landmark book—about love and loss, addiction and recovery, grief and liberation.
In 2000, a friend sent Liz to see a new hairdresser named Rayya Elias. An intense and unlikely curiosity sparked between these two apparent opposites: Rayya, an East Village badass who lived boldly on her own terms but feared she was a failed artist; Liz, a married people-pleaser with a surprisingly unfettered sense of creativity. Over the years, they became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: The two were in love. Unacknowledged: they were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe.
What if the love of your life—and the person you most trusted in the world—became a danger to your sanity and wellbeing? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening?
All the Way to the River is for everyone who has ever been captive to love–or to any other passion, substance, or craving—and who yearns, at long last, for peace and freedom.
Content warning
This book contains scenes depicting domestic abuse.
Read a sample
Get an early look from the first pages of All the Way to the River.
Why we chose it...
This is a messy, emotionally raw memoir that pulls no punches in its portrayal of grief and heartbreak—or in its transcendent moments of joy.
We were struck by how bravely this book explores the complex experience of addiction: Gilbert writes about the journey of being and loving an addict with breathtaking clarity.
The unique creative structure tells a story that reaches beyond personal memoir to encompass poetry, self-help, spirituality, and even hand-drawn art.
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Memoir
Memoir