Elizabeth Gilbert returns with an offering that is devastatingly vulnerable. I devoured this book in hours, compelled to stay alongside the author on a journey that is equal parts heartbreak and epiphany. A narrative of searing self-awareness and painful honesty sits alongside intimate poems, conversations with God, and personal doodles and drawings. Her story is incredibly compelling. She freely shares the lessons she’s learned through grief, heartbreak, and addiction, and is generous in passing on the wisdom she’s gleaned from the rooms that led to her eventual recovery. I’m looking forward to gathering with my best girlfriends for an autumnal book club to share and unpack this powerful work. Thank you, NetGalley, for the early preview of a book that just might save lives.

I was delighted to receive an ARC from the publisher. I was always very invested in the story of Liz and Rayya's relationship - so romantic, right?! I didn't imagine it would end quite like this, but when I take my rose-tinted glasses off, I now can't see how it would have ended any other way. Having been one of the original 'Eat, Pray, Love,' girls (I don't know what it is about that book, looking back, but it struck a chord) and a fan of her follow-up 'Committed,' and two historical novels, I felt like I knew Liz, but in this beautiful story she strips herself bare and looks at herself and her relationship with Rayya with unforgiving, sober eyes.

One poet - Anne Sexton? wrote 'There is no use in loving the dying, I have tried.' This book is proof of that, that there are some rivers - as per the title - you can't step in, or that you can't step in twice. When Rayya is diagnosed with cancer, she and Liz admit their feelings for each other and fall in love, but not the kind of Beaches/Boys on the Side love you might expect, an amour fou characterised by addiction, screaming, illegal activity and 'eating like a ten-year-old at a birthday party.' Fun, but only up to a point.

The drawings and the mystical between-chapter poems addressed to 'my love' or 'my darling,' don't add much for me, but they do provide breathing spaces from the intensity of the narrrative, which will occasionally have you gasping for breath as if you were one of these women. Interestingly, the 'Love' lady has now been single for five or six years. Who knows what her next chapter will be?

A beautiful, heartbreaking, painfully honest but ultimately hopeful story of love, loss, addiction, and perseverance.
The book is about the loss of Elizabeth Gilbert’s partner and long time friend, Rayya Elias, exploring their journey through friendship, terminal cancer diagnosis, a romantic relationship, addiction relapse and ultimately loss.

From their beauty of their love story to the harrowing experience of Rayya’s terminal illness and drug relapse, Gilbert never shies away from vulnerable depictions of the truth and the care, reflection and introspection she brings to the story is palpable.

Gilbert also shares her own experience with addiction and 12 step recovery in a thoughtful and self-aware way which will surely touch and resonate with the many people who seek to understand and feel understood in their pain and search for recovery. Thank you to NetGalley for the preview of what, for me at least, is a life changing book.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s partner Rayya dies and initially she hears her vividly and clearly in her consciousness, so much so, she still seems to command the room. Then it begins to diminish and more than five years pass, her voice has faded but then suddenly, there she is again. In the interim, Elizabeth gets herself together, with sobriety for one. Suddenly on her 54th birthday there she is and Rayya tells her she loves her and will be waiting for her at the river when all this is over and that it’s time for her to write an honest book about her addictions. Just as suddenly as she appears, she’s gone. Liz follows Rayya’s advice and so here goes! She does her best to tell us the truth about what happens between her and Rayya Elias, no holds barred.

This is quite some memoir as it takes the reader on a rollercoaster journey. The authors grief at losing Rayya is so intense that it’s palpable. Her many struggles are explained with searing honesty as she lays herself open and bare. It’s incredibly honest about her addictions, co-dependency and instability and so at times it’s a bit brutal. However, if you’re going to write a book like this, it’s utterly pointless unless you are honest or you derive nothing positive from it. I do hope it’s been a cathartic experience for her as part of her healing.

What of Rayya? She is portrayed so lovingly, vividly and her often unfiltered truth is at times awe inspiring in the reactions that she gets from people. Elizabeth Gilbert makes me wish I’d had the privilege of meeting her as she does sound a force of nature and quite simply fantastic.

Interspersed between the narrative are some wonderful sketches and poems that add to the reading experience.

Overall, it’s raw, heartbreaking and sad and yet there’s optimism and healing too. It’s beautifully written and very powerful.

With thanks to NetGalley and especially to Bloomsbury Publishing for the much appreciated early copy in return for an honest review.

A painfully honest story of love, addiction and loss. Liz goes to extreme lengths to help her friend/ lover Rayya's passage through a diagnosis of terminal cancer. Descriptions of Rayyas relapse into drug addiction are harrowing. Liz tells of her personal addiction to needing to be loved. Despite all her best efforts Liz has to step away and let someone else cope with Rayya.

Elizabeth Gilbert’s new memoir, All the Way to the River, is as radiantly tender as it is searingly raw. The author invites us along on a personal deep dive into love and loss, into grief and the mechanisms of all-consuming addictions in whatever form. This is a book of love and blunt vulnerability told with absolute honesty. If I could give it 10 stars, I would, and then ask for more.

Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya Elias in 2000 when she asked Rayya, a musician, filmmaker, and hairdresser, to cut her hair. In the following years, the two became close friends, never wanting to be apart. When Rayya was diagnosed with pancreatic and liver cancer in 2016, they professed their love for one another and had a private commitment ceremony.

As in her first memoir, Eat Pray Love, Gilbert doesn’t flinch from the truth of self-examination. She faces, with absolute honesty, the reality of being codependent and addicted to love. She finds her way through 12-step programs and onwards into the realm of spiritual awakening and surrender. It’s here that her healing begins.

If you liked Eat Pray Love, I can highly recommend this book. It struck a deep chord within me, and I know it is one I will reread.

My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a huge fan of Liz Gilbert’s work so reading this book was a continuation of her life’s work for me and it was an experience.

Liz has previously talked about how her partner died but to see the full story of a full life lived and also how an addict deals with not only their own addiction but their dying partners is on another level.

This book is a mediation, it’s a memoir and it’s a remembrance but most of all it is the truth of a love that lives on despite death.