-
Access Our
Most Anticipated
Books of 2025!
Summary | Excerpt | Reading Guide | Discuss | Reviews | Beyond the book | Read-Alikes | Genres & Themes | Author Bio
Seventeen Brushes with Death
by Maggie O'Farrell
Book Reviewed by:An extraordinary memoir - told entirely in near-death experiences - from one of Britain's best-selling novelists, for fans of Wild, When Breath Becomes Air, and The Year of Magical Thinking.
We are never closer to life than when we brush up against the possibility of death.
I Am, I Am, I Am is Maggie O'Farrell's astonishing memoir of the near-death experiences that have punctuated and defined her life. The childhood illness that left her bedridden for a year, which she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. An encounter with a disturbed man on a remote path. And, most terrifying of all, an ongoing, daily struggle to protect her daughter - for whom this book was written - from a condition that leaves her unimaginably vulnerable to life's myriad dangers.
Seventeen discrete encounters with Maggie at different ages, in different locations, reveal a whole life in a series of tense, visceral snapshots. In taut prose that vibrates with electricity and restrained emotion, O'Farrell captures the perils running just beneath the surface, and illuminates the preciousness, beauty, and mysteries of life itself.
I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.
Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
NECK
1990
On the path ahead, stepping out from behind a boulder, a man appears. We are, he and I, on the far side of a dark tarn that lies hidden in the bowl-curved summit of this mountain. The sky is a milky blue above us; no vegetation grows this far up so it is just me and him, the stones and the still black water. He straddles the narrow track with both booted feet and he smiles.
I realise several things. That I passed him earlier, farther down the glen. We greeted each other, in the amiable yet brief manner of those on a country walk. That, on this remote stretch of path, there is no one near enough to hear me call. That he has been waiting for me: he has planned this whole thing, carefully, meticulously, and I have walked into his trap.
I see all this, in an instant.
This day—a day on which I nearly die—began early for me, just after dawn, my alarm clock leaping ...
What is your book club reading in 2025?
We select our books in October. For the coming year: Cannery Row , John Steinbeck West with Giraffes , Lynda Rutledge The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell , Robert Dugoni All Passion Spent , Vita Sackville West This Must be the Place , Maggie O'Farrell *Lenny Marks Gets Away with Murder,*Kerryn May...
-Audrey_Glick
I am I am I am, Seventeen Brushes with Death, acclaimed novelist Maggie O'Farrell's latest book, speaks to the beauty and importance of life, even at its most ordinary, by closely examining seventeen of her own personal episodes. It is an unusual format for a memoir, but one that works well. Readers may find their own memories stirred by reading O'Farrell's memoir – something else to savor along with the sage words from a writer at the peak of her powers...continued
Full Review
(645 words)
This review is available to non-members for a limited time. For full access,
become a member today.
(Reviewed by Kate Braithwaite).
Ann Patchett
I Am, I Am, I Am is a gripping and glorious investigation of death that leaves the reader feeling breathless, grateful, and fully alive. Maggie O'Farrell is a miracle in every sense. I will never forget this book.Maggie O'Farrell was born in Northern Ireland in 1972 and grew up in various locations across Wales and Scotland. When she was just eight she contracted encephalitis, an experience she describes in a chapter called "Cerebellum (1980)" in her memoir, I Am I Am I Am. The illness did long term damage, leaving her physically weak and sometimes unstable, and likely brought on neurological traits of unease, oversensitivity and dissatisfaction.
Despite this major childhood trauma, O'Farrell returned to school and attended Cambridge University, studying English before embarking on a career as a journalist. She published her debut, After You'd Gone, in 2000, and is now the author of seven highly acclaimed novels.
In her memoir, I Am I Am I Am:...
This "beyond the book" feature is available to non-members for a limited time. Join today for full access.
If you liked I Am, I Am, I Am, try these:
by Rachel Clarke
Published 2020
In Dear Life, palliative care specialist Dr. Rachel Clarke recounts her professional and personal journey to understand not the end of life, but life at its end.
by Patricia Lockwood
Published 2018
From Patricia Lockwood - a writer acclaimed for her wildly original voice - a vivid, heartbreakingly funny memoir about having a married Catholic priest for a father.
The Dream Hotel
by Laila Lalami
A Read with Jenna pick. A riveting novel about one woman's fight for freedom, set in a near future where even dreams are under surveillance.
Girl Falling
by Hayley Scrivenor
The USA Today bestselling author of Dirt Creek returns with a story of grief and truth.
Raising Hare
by Chloe Dalton
A moving and fascinating meditation on freedom, trust, and loss through one woman's friendship with a wild hare.
The Antidote
by Karen Russell
A gripping dust bowl epic about five characters whose fates become entangled after a storm ravages their small Nebraskan town.
Jane and Dan at the End of the World
by Colleen Oakley
Date Night meets Bel Canto in this hilarious tale.
He who opens a door, closes a prison
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!