Maggie O'Farrell is lucky to be alive. In her latest book, a memoir this time, she shares with us seventeen brushes with death and her thoughts and feelings having survived a multitude of illnesses and close calls. A novelist best known for books like This Must Be the Place and Instructions for a Heatwave, O'Farrell's gift for words is obvious in her non-fiction as well as her novels.

I Am, I Am, I Am is a life story in vignettes, from her teenaged self diving into too-deep waters to her childhood struggle with encephalitis that let her with long lasting neurological issues. There are narrow escapes from a threatening robber and budding serial killer as well as heart-breaking problems with pregnancy and childbirth. The chapters take us back and forth through time, to feel her pain and frustration at loss, her hope and joyous celebration at survival, and the lessons she learns throughout.

With more than a dash of stories from her world travels, a bit of her struggles as a young writer, more than a couple stories of the hair-pulling frustration and elation of parenting, and the heartbreak of relationships, O'Farrell shares some of her most intimate memories with a searing honesty and self-aware irony that keeps her grounded.

Personally. I love Maggie O'Farrell's novels, and I loved this book as well. While the chapters weren't always easy to read--some were downright harrowing--I felt like I got to spend time listening to a good and trusted friend talk about life. It's tough to read, and keep those tissues at hand for some chapters, but I do not regret a single moment I spent with this book.

I started this by saying that Maggie O'Farrell is lucky to be alive, but the truth is, we are all lucky that Maggie O'Farrell is alive, and doubly so that she is writing. And so I read, I read, I read.

Galleys for I Am, I Am, I Am were provided by Knopf through Penguin's First To Read program, with many thanks.