Eat, Pray, Love

It’s three am. Elizabeth Gilbert, a thirty-something writer, is sobbing on the bathroom floor. Her husband, whom she is contemplating leaving, is sleeping next door. Her misery drives her to do something she has never done before: pray. “Hello God. How are you? I’m Liz. It’s nice to meet you.”. A voice responds.“Go back to bed, Liz.” It is more conversation than conversion. A bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair are to follow, but also a new kind of freedom. And it leads to Liz’s year-long journey to find happiness and balance in her life. Firstly she spends four months in Rome, where she learns Italian from identically handsome twins, refrains from romantic involvement (despite the twins) and gains twenty-five pounds. Then four months in an ashram in India, where she finds that enlightenment entails getting up at 3am to scrub the temple floor and she manages to lay some ghosts to rest. Finally to Bali, where a toothless medicine man offers her a new path to achieve peace — simply to sit still and smile. It is here that happiness begins slowly to creep up on her. Eat, Pray Love is a journey around the world, a quest for spiritual enlightenment and a story for anyone who has battled with divorce, depression and heartbreak. Written with tremendous wit, intelligence and sympathy, it is a must-read.