A life is made up of many shocks -

The scream of wheels over asphalt as cars collide.

The unexpected death of a loved one and the long trek of grief.

The swift loss of a mind and the work of refinding it, raw and quivering as a newborn mouse.

The brutality of teenage girlhood. The abiding temptation of hunger. The stumbling spinning magic of drunkenness. The cost.

The violent acts of others.

The falling into love, for once utterly awake.

Birth: the tearing open of a body and of reality itself.

In We All Come Home Alive, Anna Beecher tells the story of her life through the moments which remade her. Written with wisdom and luminous beauty, this is a book that offers consolation and companionship, for readers of Emilie Pine's Notes to Self or Maggie O'Farrell's I Am, I Am, I Am.