Elizabeth Gilbert’s All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation is the latest pick for Oprah Winfrey’s book club.
The latest memoir from Eat, Pray, Love author Gilbert, published Tuesday by Riverhead, is an account of her relationship with Rayya Elias, who, like Gilbert, struggled with addiction. It also tells the story of Elias’ death from cancer in 2018. A critic for Kirkus called the book “a worthy addition to the literature of addiction and recovery, charming and harrowing by turns.”
Winfrey announced the memoir’s selection on CBS Mornings with Gilbert sitting next to her. “I was of the era of Eat, Pray, Love,” Winfrey said. “I remember being absolutely giddy the very first time I interviewed you on the Oprah show…and I thought, This woman had it all figured out. And then you read just the opening pages of this book, and you realize she didn’t have it all figured out, and as you go through the book, she’s so brave, revealing all of these things.”
Gilbert told CBS Mornings host Gayle King, “I was saying to Oprah before, This book hits different. I think it will take a lot of people by surprise in the same way this story took me by surprise while I was in it, because I certainly did not expect this book or this story to go in the direction it did, into all the drama and trauma that’s discussed.”
Michael Schaub is a contributing writer.
