Synopses & Reviews
A narrative composed of brutal honesty, tenderness, and an aching love for God. I could not put it down.” Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees
In the middle of her life, acclaimed memoirist Beverly Donofrio thought shed found a safe haven in a beautiful town in Mexicountil she was awakened in her bed by a rapist. As she writes in this fierce, unflinching account: This was not supposed to happen. I was supposed to have escaped: I had hot flashes and liver spots and was in the final stretch.”
Here Donofrio wrestles with anger toward her attacker and toward life, yet realizes her despair is not unlike that of other friends who are struggling with grave illnesses, loss of jobs, deaths of loved ones. Hoping to heal from trauma, Donofrio turns to prayer while journeying to five very different monasteries. A testimony to how anyone who is broken can move away from fear and anger toward grace, Astonished will not only be read and shared by fans of Donofrios previous books, but also by anyone who hopes to be inspired by Donofrios strength and her search for faith, healing, and identity.
Review
Praise for Astonished by Beverly Donofrio:
"As beautiful as it is authentic, Astonished is one of the most compelling, appealing, and instructive spiritual autobiographies I have read in many a year." —Phyllis Tickle, author of The Great Emergence: How Christianity Is Changing and Why
Review
“To me, Beverly Donofrio is part Abigail Thomas, part Anne Lamott, part Kathleen Norris, and 100 percent original. Terrifying and, at moments, terribly funny. Candid, compelling, and, above all else, wise. Here's Beverly Donofrio, the rebellious teenager and tough single mother from Riding in Cars with Boys, forty years later, still vulnerable, still resilient, tested and tempered by life, and finally forging her own peace. Astonished is a seeker's and writing woman's spiritual journey through doubt and despair, emerging in cowboy boots, green tights, and prayer.” —Sara Pritchard, author of Crackpots and Help Wanted: Female
Synopsis
Denied college, Beverly Donofrio lost interest in everything but riding around town in cars, drinking and smoking, and rebelling against authority. She got married and divorced and finally ended up in an elite New England university, books in one arm, child in the other. A book about the compromise between being your own person and fitting into society.
Synopsis
A bestselling memoirist bravely tells the story of the night evil paid her a visit—and how prayer chased evil away Beverly Donofrio had already lived two lives, first as a scrappy young mother on the streets of the East Village and later as the bestselling author of Riding in Cars with Boys. By the time she reached her fifties, she thought she had seen it all.
Now, even though she was living in a vibrant, picturesque Mexican town, where she practiced yoga, drank margaritas in her backyard, and took salsa lessons, she felt lost and was searching for monasteries to visit. The religious practice that had nourished her for several years had faded. She missed God. Then one night she woke to find a rapist holding a knife to her throat. So begins the memoir that charts Donofrio’s journey—a long and twisting road through denial, mourning, anger, vulnerability, and retreat at five very different monasteries.
Told through Donofrio’s brutally honest, often ribald, emotionally unsparing voice, Astonished is a tender and hopeful narrative of healing and learning to love life again.
Synopsis
A narrative composed of brutal honesty, tenderness, and an aching love for God. I could not put it down.” Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees In the middle of her life, acclaimed memoirist Beverly Donofrio thought shed found a safe haven in a beautiful town in Mexicountil she was awakened in her bed by a rapist. As she writes in this fierce, unflinching account: This was not supposed to happen. I was supposed to have escaped: I had hot flashes and liver spots and was in the final stretch.”
Here Donofrio wrestles with anger toward her attacker and toward life, yet realizes her despair is not unlike that of other friends who are struggling with grave illnesses, loss of jobs, deaths of loved ones. Hoping to heal from trauma, Donofrio turns to prayer while journeying to five very different monasteries. A testimony to how anyone who is broken can move away from fear and anger toward grace, Astonished will not only be read and shared by fans of Donofrios previous books, but also by anyone who hopes to be inspired by Donofrios strength and her search for faith, healing, and identity.
About the Author
Beverly Donofrio’s first memoir,
Riding in Cars with Boys, has been translated into sixteen languages and made into a popular motion picture. Her second memoir,
Looking for Mary, began as a documentary on NPR and was chosen as a Discover Book at Barnes & Noble. She lived for four years as a lay Carmelite at Nada Hermitage in Colorado, where she began this book.