All the Way to the River: Oprah's Book Club: Love, Loss, and Liberation

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK

"A delicious mashup of narrative that's by turns harrowing and healing." –People

“Entertaining, insightful, wrenching … punch-to-the-gut powerful.” –The Washington Post

“A blockbuster: brutally honest, lurid, transcendent, and compelling…Gilbert is undoubtedly a force.” —Boston Globe

In her first nonfiction book in a decade, the #1 bestselling writer who taught millions of readers to live authentically (Eat Pray Love) and creatively (Big Magic) shows how to break free.

In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: The two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe.

What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? 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 a landmark memoir that will resonate with anyone who has ever been captive to love—or to any other passion, substance, or craving—and who yearns, at long last, for liberation.

Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of eleven works of fiction and nonfiction, which collectively have sold more than 25 million copies worldwide, spent more than two hundred weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, and been translated into more than fifty languages. She has been a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. Her books and talks have expanded our understanding of creativity, spirituality, courage, mercy, and love for decades, and her TED talk, “Your Elusive Creative Genius,” remains among the most popular in TED’s history. With millions of followers on her social media channels, she continues to be one of the most beloved and influential writers of our age.

“Classic Gilbert: entertaining, insightful, wrenching, self-effacing, self-indulgent and profoundly real. Its strongest scenes, of Gilbert and partner Rayya Elias’s beyond-beautiful and then beyond-ugly interactions, are punch-to-the-gut powerful … She furthers the enduring women’s crusade to split the world open.”–The Washington Post

“A blockbuster: brutally honest, lurid, transcendent, and compelling…Gilbert is undoubtedly a force.” –Boston Globe

“A loving tribute to Elias, an unfiltered descent into substance abuse, and an intimate look at Gilbert’s hard fought road to recovery.” –TIME

“What makes this book worthy is the author’s fierce self-reckoning: There’s no easy triumph, just more hard work.” –Los Angeles Times

"A delicious mashup of narrative that's by turns harrowing and healing."–People

"Elizabeth Gilbert has written her rawest memoir yet. . .the acclaimed author pulls no punches, offering an unvarnished look at love, addiction, and the long road to recovery."–Elle

“Deeply personal…a beautiful portrait of a woman learning to care for herself.” –Real Simple

“Inspiring account…Gilbert achieves her signature intimacy through a bluntly confessional tone… and an admirable ability to stare darkness in the face without losing hope. Readers struggling with addiction or seeking a path through heartbreak will find invaluable wisdom in these pages.” –Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Gilbert rips open her life to share all the painful moments and grief … in a story of despair and courage that … must have been unimaginable to write… Fans of her more lighthearted memoir and novels may be shocked by this book’s intensity, but it’s a brave story with an ultimately hopeful outcome. Anyone who has faced addiction—or loved someone who has—will recognize and be moved by Gilbert’s journey.” –Booklist, Starred Review

“The author of the world’s most famous memoir returns to the form to tell the story of a great love….A worthy addition to the literature of addiction and recovery, charming and harrowing by turns.” – Kirkus