All the Way to the River

Love, Loss, and Liberation

De: Elizabeth Gilbert

Narrado por: Elizabeth Gilbert

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

AN OPRAH'S BOOK CLUB PICK

"A delicious mashup of narrative that's by turns harrowing and healing." –People

“Entertaining, insightful, wrenching … punch-to-the-gut powerful.” –The Washington Post

“A blockbuster: brutally honest, lurid, transcendent, and compelling…Gilbert is undoubtedly a force.” —Boston Globe

In her first nonfiction book in a decade, the #1 bestselling writer who taught millions of readers and listeners to live authentically (Eat Pray Love) and creatively (Big Magic) shows how to break free.

In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: The two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe.

What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening?

All the Way to the River is a landmark memoir that will resonate with anyone who has ever been captive to love—or to any other passion, substance, or craving—and who yearns, at long last, for liberation.

©2025 Elizabeth Gilbert (P)2025 Penguin Audio

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Inspiring account…Gilbert achieves her signature intimacy through a bluntly confessional tone… and an admirable ability to stare darkness in the face without losing hope. Readers struggling with addiction or seeking a path through heartbreak will find invaluable wisdom in these pages.” – Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Gilbert rips open her life to share all the painful moments and grief … in a story of despair and courage that … must have been unimaginable to write… Fans of her more lighthearted memoir and novels may be shocked by this book’s intensity, but it’s a brave story with an ultimately hopeful outcome. Anyone who has faced addiction—or loved someone who has—will recognize and be moved by Gilbert’s journey.” – Booklist, Starred Review

“The author of the world’s most famous memoir returns to the form to tell the story of a great love….A worthy addition to the literature of addiction and recovery, charming and harrowing by turns.” – Kirkus

“A loving tribute to Elias, an unfiltered descent into substance abuse, and an intimate look at Gilbert’s hard fought road to recovery.” – TIME

On Bravery, Addiction, and the Gift of Time

This was my first Elizabeth Gilbert book, recommended by my wife, and it turned out to be one of the most impactful books I’ve ever read. What struck me from the start was the brutal honesty, the willingness to expose her fears, addictions, and shortcomings without flinching. That kind of bravery reminds me why we need artists in the first place — not to hand us some blueprint, but to show us what an examined life actually looks like.

And then there’s her writing. She’s such a beautiful writer. Minimalist, yes, but every line is clear and strong and somehow manages to carry enormous weight. She has a way of dropping a thought that just won’t leave you. The one that I can’t shake is her reflection on how much time is freed once you’re no longer in thrall to addiction — time to pursue meaningful things, to be present, to live. Time is the most precious commodity we have, the one we will all run out of, and yet it’s also the one we squander and neglect most. That line has been circling in my head ever since.

This is not a book for everyone. Some people will resist its rawness, or find it uncomfortable. But for anyone who struggles with addiction, or who is simply trying to live a more authentic life, there is something profound here. It’s not a manual, but it is a mirror — someone else’s honest attempt to wrestle with their own shadows, and in doing so, to make sense of what it means to live with honesty.

And that matters. Because we live in a time obsessed with bravado, the macho metrics of success, with material desires and endless distractions available at the touch of a finger. In that kind of world, a book like this feels essential. Vulnerability, doubt, self-reckoning — these are not weaknesses, they are the foundation of authenticity. Gilbert is brave enough to use herself as a canvas, and we are lucky she does.

For me, this was the most honest personal journey I’ve ever read. Elizabeth, thank you.

The gut-wrenching truth

I will ever enjoy Elizabeth Gilbert’s thoughtful caring voice and calm tone. That she understands and reveals so much raw clear details brought the story warmly straight to the heart of the matter gently yet insistently.

A difficult but worthy story

What I appreciate about Liz is how she shares her thoughts and her heart to the rest of us. Her voice is authentic, and her best stories are the personal ones that we can all relate to at some level. I also like that she narrates herself. Her humor, love, and pain come through so genuinely. There is no better voice for this than her own. The human condition, and its joys and sorrows, different for each of us, is something we all must experience, endure, and even overcome at various points in our lives. Thanks for sharing with us, Liz. Best of luck and many blessings to you on your journey.

Stunning. Profound. Moving. Insightful. Heartbreaking. Healing. Inspiring.

Thank you Liz Gilbert for sharing this honest, soulful, human gift! Stunning. Profound. Moving. Insightful. Heartbreaking. Healing. Inspiring.

such a raw story

this was heartbreaking in is honesty and so human and relatable. highly recommend especially for those who have found themselves moving through codependency, caregiving burnout and those who love.

So helpful. So necessary now.

As always - amazing writing. Truth speaking. Soul crushing. And so helpful. And beautifully read of course.

Honest and Brave

“All the Way to the River” is told with such honesty and bravery. I believe this book will help a lot of people as they see parts of themselves in Elizabeth’s story. This story helps bring to light all the different kinds of addictions that people struggle with and more importantly that solutions and recovery are possible. The author’s narration is well done and heartfelt. I found myself listening to some of the chapters more than once and saving clips of insightful chapters.

Fantastic

This book is just so real so heartbreaking . But with so much love . A must read

A perfect memoir

As a person who has been in the rooms and working it for the last 38 years, triple crown winner here, this is an extremely important book. Everybody I work with in recovery are knee deep in this nonconference approved, poignant, stunning, experience strength, and hope story. I really want them all to read this book no matter how much time they have or what particular affliction. There have been many people that have come and gone from the rooms who have become personalities out there and use the wisdom from the rooms to catapult themselves into the limelight. Many writers who take those wisdoms and call them their own, and that has to be OK because it doesn’t matter where we hear it, it matters that we get it, that said the fact that she lays it all down at the feet of the program because that’s where she got it and she gives credit where credit is due shows me the level of her commitment to her recovery and not to her ego …I really work on following the program, the steps, being super fluent in those steps, and not following the personalities. This will be hard with Liz. This book will be bought in paper form and then covered and highlighted and circled with notes all over it that’ll say, yes yes, me too, yes I feel this, I believe this, yes, work on this. Yes, yes, I felt that. Yes, yes.

Elizabeth’s remarkable life

I have followed Elizabeth Gilbert throughout her writing years. Through her books, I have grown into a stronger, wiser woman with increased insight into the human condition. She’s influenced me; she will influence and change you. Offered by Lynn Keegan, PhD, RN.