Lucky

In a book praised for its razor-sharp honesty and humor, Alice Sebold describes how being viciously raped and battered as a freshman in college at the age of eighteen completely changed her life. This account of her recovery is driven by Sebold's unwavering spirit, which is evident in her struggles for understanding ("After telling the hard facts to anyone, from lover to friend, I have changed in their eyes"); her bewildered family and friends' occasionally clumsy attempts to console and support her; and, in the end, her triumph, as she uses luck and grit to help secure her attacker's arrest and conviction. In a story that alternates between being unsettling, exciting, and motivational, Alice Sebold sheds light on the experiences of trauma survivors while also sharing a really difficult lesson: "You save yourself or you remain unsaved."