A wonderful ode to self-discovery that I cherished until the very last page. Gilbert’s talent for storytelling blew me away once more, making her other books climb up my pile of books on my shelf. The story starts with a narration of Elizabeth’s extremely hard divorce which led her to desperately turn to God for any kind of help until the answers to her prayers led her to an exciting, transformative journey traveling through Italy, India and Indonesia.

Her trip was separated into three distinct phases as she spent three months in each country chasing healing and wisdom all along. The first phase was in Italy where she dedicated herself to the pursuit of pleasure through the delicacies of Italian food, regular trips to cities nearby Rome and the encounter of many wonderful new friends. Most importantly, she went to Rome to learn Italian, a language she found so fascinating in every possible way that her descriptions made me sign up for an Italian course!

Her time in Italy filled her with so much hope and energy for the next important part of her journey: Ashram in India. This was probably my favorite part to read about as Elizabeth’s writing gets raw, emotional and sincere when she describes every hurdle on her spiritual quest engrained in the practice of deep meditation and buddhism. I couldn’t stop highlighting so many wise quotes, lessons and inspiring stories during her time in India.

Finally, she continued her trip to Bali where she spent her days learning from the old medicine man Ketut who shared with her so many lessons from his own life as a healer of both the Balinese and international community of visitors. Ultimately, she formed a very moving friendship with the inhabitants whom she helped in unmeasurable, life-changing ways.

All in all, this book was truly amazing. From the start to the end, I was left so inspired by Elizabeth’s journey and eager to discover more and more about the wisdom she collected all around the world.