Listen free for 30 days
-
Astonished
- Narrated by: Janet Donofrio
- Length: 6 hrs and 49 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wish list failed.
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Astonished
Buy Now for $20.40
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's Summary
A best-selling memoirist bravely tells the story of the night evil paid her a visit - and how prayer chased evil away
Beverly Donofrio had already lived two lives, first as a scrappy young mother on the streets of the East Village and later as the best-selling author of Riding in Cars with Boys. By the time she reached her 50s, she thought she had seen it all.
Now, even though she was living in a vibrant, picturesque Mexican town, where she practiced yoga, drank margaritas in her backyard, and took salsa lessons, she felt lost and was searching for monasteries to visit. The religious practice that had nourished her for several years had faded. She missed God. Then one night she woke to find a rapist holding a knife to her throat. So begins the memoir that charts Donofrio’s journey - a long and twisting road through denial, mourning, anger, vulnerability, and retreat at five very different monasteries.
Told through Donofrio’s brutally honest, often ribald, emotionally unsparing voice, Astonished is a tender and hopeful narrative of healing and learning to love life again.
What the critics say
“Reading Donofrio’s memoir, Astonished, is, in itself, an astonishing experience. She grapples with her faith in ways and in words that startle, move, mesmerize, wrench, enliven, and thrill the reader. It is a narrative composed of brutal honesty, tenderness, and an aching love for God. I could not put it down.” (Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Secret Life of Bees)
“The brutally honest author of Riding in Cars with Boys reveals how a terrifying brush with a rapist sparked her spirituality and set her on a journey of recovery paved with prayer.” (O Magazine)
“A smart, funny memoir about a woman seeking answers to some very hard questions.... Donofrio’s intelligent and down-to-earth delivery gives [Astonished] a meditative feel. For her, 'bringing God into the picture makes me pay closer attention’. Her writing does the same thing for us. Her bravery helps. She holds nothing back.” (San Francisco Chronicle)