Eat, Pray, Love

One Woman's Search for Everything Across Italy, India, and Indonesia

By: Elizabeth Gilbert

Narrated by: Elizabeth Gilbert

Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins

Publisher's summary

Around the time Elizabeth Gilbert turned 30, she went through an early-onslaught midlife crisis. She had everything an educated, ambitious American woman was supposed to want: a husband, a house, a successful career. But instead of feeling happy and fulfilled, she was consumed with panic, grief, and confusion. She went through a divorce, a crushing depression, another failed love, and the eradication of everything she ever thought she was supposed to be.

To recover from all this, Gilbert took a radical step. In order to give herself the time and space to find out who she really was and what she really wanted, she got rid of her belongings, quit her job, and undertook a yearlong journey around the world, all alone. Eat, Pray, Love is the absorbing chronicle of that year. Her aim was to visit three places where she could examine one aspect of her own nature set against the backdrop of a culture that has traditionally done that one thing very well. In Rome, she studied the art of pleasure, learning to speak Italian and gaining the 23 happiest pounds of her life. India was for the art of devotion, and with the help of a native guru and a surprisingly wise cowboy from Texas, she embarked on four uninterrupted months of spiritual exploration. In Bali, she studied the art of balance between worldly enjoyment and divine transcendence. She became the pupil of an elderly medicine man and also fell in love the best way, unexpectedly.

An intensely articulate and moving memoir of self-discovery, Eat, Pray, Love is about what can happen when you claim responsibility for your own contentment and stop trying to live in imitation of society's ideals. It is certain to touch anyone who has ever woken up to the unrelenting need for change.

©2006 Elizabeth Gilbert (P)2006 Penguin Audio, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., and Books on Tape. All rights reserved.

Critic reviews

"The author's reading of this memoir adds depth; she's obviously not a professional narrator, but her vocal presence provides vivid color and quirky humor as she eats (in Italy), prays (in India), and finds love (in Indonesia). This is a delightful memoir that explores exotic countries as well as the author's heart and soul." (AudioFile magazine)

"Sustaining a chatty, conspiratorial tone, Gilbert fully engages readers in the year's cultural and emotional tapestry, conveying rapture with infectious brio, recalling anguish with touching candor, as she details her exotic tableau with history, anecdote and impression." (Publishers Weekly)

"Gilbert's sensuous and audacious spiritual odyssey is as deeply pleasurable as it is enlightening." (Booklist)

I'm a dude...

...and I friggin LOVED this book! That's all. No review. Just felt overwhelmingly compelled to shout its praise the instant I finished it.

Beautiful!

Left me wanting more. This was truly a great escape, I think I might try meditating Bali style!

Should be required reading for everyone

What was one of the most memorable moments of Eat, Pray, Love?

This book has two memorable moments. The imagery was just magical. The first was a description of watching two souls dance and intermingle in the starry night sky. The second was about the comfort and peace of being cradled in God's hand. These images have stayed with me since finishing the book and I find comfort and awe and inspiration when I contemplate upon them. I don't read books twice, but II am listening to this book for the second time. The inflections in the authors' voice create approachability and creditable believability. I would recommend this for everyone' reading list, the skeptic and the mature, male and female, young and not so young, There is something for everyone to relate too at whatever point of live your find yourself in.

3rd time and it's still great

I read this several years ago, then I listened to it a couple of years ago and now I listened to it again because I wanted to review it before going to the sequel. Excellent and I love getting books that authors read themselves.

I've read this book 22 times and I keep falling in love

I never get tired of reading this but somehow it always takes me to a magical place of freedom impossibility. I love her depiction of pain struggle and hope Elizabeth Gilbert you are amazing!

Great book

I really enjoyed this book!
It kept me so engaged during an 8 hour drive!
I really liked Liz reading the book.
She is a great author and you could hear personal experience and pain leaking through.

Amazing

I enjoyed every word read in this book!! Elizabeth Gilbert is amazing!!! She reads to you in this audio book with a feeling and drama as if you are right in front of her and very expressive! Loved it! Thank you!

Stunning. Masterful. Enduring.

Read it years ago, now decided to listen. Gilbert is heartfelt and enduring. Utterly sensational! I'd read/listen again.

Let's Cross Over

This book was exactly what I needed to listen to during what seemed like then the roughest period in my life.
This book showed my me that here is hope at the end of the tunnel and that you have to work and sometimes sacrifice in order to reach it.
In the end it's just like she said...Let's cross over.

A pearl

I keep extra cppies to give sway.Memoir and so much more.Holding me when needed.