The Unwinding of the Miracle

A Memoir of Life, Death, and Everything That Comes After

By: Julie Yip-Williams

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller, Joshua Williams

Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins

Publisher's summary

New York Times best seller

Read with Jenna Book Club Pick as Featured on Today

As a young mother facing a terminal diagnosis, Julie Yip-Williams began to write her story, a story like no other. What began as the chronicle of an imminent and early death became something much more - a powerful exhortation to the living.

"An exquisitely moving portrait of the daily stuff of life." (The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice)

Named one of the Best Books of the Year by:

• The New York Times Book Review
• Time
• Real Simple
• Good Housekeeping

That Julie Yip-Williams survived infancy was a miracle. Born blind in Vietnam, she narrowly escaped euthanasia at the hands of her grandmother, only to flee with her family the political upheaval of her country in the late 1970s. Loaded into a rickety boat with 300 other refugees, Julie made it to Hong Kong and, ultimately, America, where a surgeon at UCLA gave her partial sight. She would go on to become a Harvard-educated lawyer, with a husband, a family, and a life she had once assumed would be impossible. Then, at age 37, with two little girls at home, Julie was diagnosed with terminal metastatic colon cancer, and a different journey began.

The Unwinding of the Miracle is the story of a vigorous life refracted through the prism of imminent death. When she was first diagnosed, Julie Yip-Williams sought clarity and guidance through the experience and, finding none, began to write her way through it - a chronicle that grew beyond her imagining. Motherhood, marriage, the immigrant experience, ambition, love, wanderlust, tennis, fortune-tellers, grief, reincarnation, jealousy, comfort, pain, the marvel of the body in full rebellion - this audiobook is as sprawling and majestic as the life it records. It is inspiring and instructive, delightful and shattering. It is an audiobook of indelible moments, seared deep - an incomparable guide to living vividly by facing hard truths consciously.

With humor, bracing honesty, and the cleansing power of well-deployed anger, Julie Yip-Williams set the stage for her lasting legacy and one final miracle: the story of her life.

Praise for The Unwinding of the Miracle

"Everything worth understanding and holding on to is in this book.... A miracle indeed." (Kelly Corrigan, New York Times best-selling author)

"A beautifully written, moving, and compassionate chronicle that deserves to be read and absorbed widely." (Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies)

©2019 Julie Yip-Williams (P)2019 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Eloquent, gutting and at times disarmingly funny... Yip-Williams writes with such vibrancy and electricity even as she is dying.... This memoir is so many things - a triumphant tale of a blind immigrant, a remarkable philosophical treatise and a call to arms to pay attention to the limited time we have on this earth. But at its core, it’s an exquisitely moving portrait of the daily stuff of life: family secrets and family ties, marriage and its limitlessness and limitations, wild and unbounded parental love and, ultimately, the graceful recognition of what we can’t - and can - control.” (The New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice)

“Everything worth understanding and holding on to is in this book.... A miracle indeed.” (Kelly Corrigan, New York Times best-selling author of The Middle Place and Tell Me More)

“A beautifully written, moving, and compassionate chronicle that deserves to be read and absorbed widely.” (Siddhartha Mukherjee, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies)

“Julie Yip-Williams lived a life defined by effort and incredible self-reliance. But in this searing memoir of increasing vulnerability, she dismantles and then reconstructs what it means to be triumphant. Her writing examines not only her disability and illness - and their cultural, medical, and narrative constructs - but love, authenticity, hope, egotism, even rage. I didn’t know Julie, but in these pages, I grew to love her.” (Lucy Kalanithi)

Julie's words have helped my spirit, mind & body!

Excellent read for anyone, this is about a journey of a beautiful life that was well lived and a death that was as special as the day she was born.
Other thoughts......
First: I've listened to Julie's epic story of her beautiful and loving life twice thus far.
Second: she doesn't hold back on the icky, painful, bad things that come along with a terminal illness. i.e. she says the F bomb and means it! those of us that are sick or full of pain should say that every now and again; it makes one feel better.. well only for a moment but I truly get her.
Third: I know if Julie and I ever met, we'd be the kind of friends that would make one another laugh, cry in the very next moment, and talk about the love and support our families give while slowly getting on with their own journeys without us. I like to say "my mind says; let's go,go go, but my body says no,no,no!"
Thank you Julie, your story and your words have helped. I will listen again and again because I get what she's saying and how interestingly familiar the emotions and thoughts are to my own.
Blessings to Josh and his and Julie's girls.

Julie left us all a gift! Thank you!

This story is a true view of what it is like to walk boldly into the inevitable(death). Julie challenges us to examine our motives, what we believe and cognizantly choose HOW we live this life!

Raw and Honest

Nothing sugar coated. Felt as if you were going thru it with her & family.

AWESOME!

I ENJOYED THIS BOOK TREMENDOUSLY! i COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN. THIS A STORY OF A VERY COURAGEOUS YOUNG WOMEN THAT IN THE MIDST OF HER BATTLE WITH CANCER WRITES ABOUT HER EXPERIENCE. I HOPE IF SOMETHING LIKE THAT EVER HAPPENS TO ME THAT I HAVE A SLIVER OF HER COURAGE AND GRACE!

Absolutely beautiful, honest, and heartbreaking

I’ve read several memoirs of cancer patients who are in the process of dying, most of which have been published posthumously. Julie‘s approach to cancer and life in general is unique from so many. I loved her brutal honesty, her deep love for others, and her inspiring example of how to fully love and embrace life. It really is a beautiful story and so beautifully written.

Great story.

Just sad that it is based on a true story. It’s a must listen too!!!

A true gift!

Julie Yip-Williams memoir is a true gift to those lucky enough to have good health and to those dealing with life limiting illnesses. I am grateful for what she has shared here and am even more determined to shake things up and pay attention to the things that are most important in my life.
Her honest account of her and her family’s journey through her illness is a testament to her strength and dedication to her husband and child. Thank you to Julie and her family for sharing the intimate details of this inspiring story.

Honest and heartfelt but a little repetitive

The author’s narrative was very moving at times, and hearing how she and her Vietnamese family persevered against overwhelming obstacles was inspiring and the best part of the book to me. Her husband sounded like a pretty awesome person too. The journey thru cancer was grim and tedious. At the risk of sounding insensitive, some passages were repetitive to the point that I felt like my audible narration had gone back to an earlier chapter. I wish the story had been more tightly edited to remove some of the repetition. Otherwise it was honest, heartfelt, realistic, and moving, including her husband’s epilogue. The narrator was excellent.

Beautiful

It’s just a beautiful, raw and brutally honest look at a terminal diagnosis. Some reviews criticize the anger and redundancy of the book. Personally, I think that’s just part of the honesty of her journey. It’s an inspiring, honest and heartbreaking book.

A must read...

To appreciate life, we must accept and respect death. Julie taught me that. Julie died of the same cancer that took my mother 2 years prior to her death. Thank you, Julie