No one can pull anyone back from anywhere. You save yourself or you remain unsaved.

In Lucky, a memoir long hailed for its blistering honesty and wit, Alice Sebold reveals how her life was irrevocably changed when, as an eighteen-year-old college freshman, she was raped and beaten in a tunnel near her campus. In the same tunnel, a girl was raped and dismembered. By comparison, Alice was told by police, she was lucky.

Though Alice's friends and family try their best to offer understanding and support, in the end it is Alice's formidable spirit which resonates most in these pages. In a narrative both painful and inspiring, Alice Sebold shines a light on the true experience of violent trauma. Sebold's redemption turns out to be as hard won as it is real.

'A rueful, razor-sharp memoir . . . a brave and modest work of demystification' Sarah Kerr, Vogue

'Moving, compelling and hard to put down; a horror story that, finally, gives way to hope' Time Out