A luminous memoir about how friendship saved one woman's life, for
anyone who has loved a friend who was sick, grieving, or lost--and for
anyone who has struggled to seek or accept help
Eva Hagberg spent her lonely youth looking everywhere for connection:
drugs, alcohol, therapists, boyfriends, girlfriends. Sometimes she found
it, but always temporarily. Then, at age thirty, an undiscovered mass in
her brain ruptured. So did her life. A brain surgery marked only the
beginning of a long journey, and when her illness hit a critical stage,
it forced her to finally admit the long-suppressed truth: she was
vulnerable, she needed help, and she longed to grow. She needed true
friendship for the first time.
How to Be Loved is the story of how an isolated person's life was
ripped apart only to be gently stitched back together through
friendship, and the recovery--of many stripes--that came along the way.
It explores the isolation so many of us feel despite living in an age of
constant connectivity; how our ambitions sometimes pull us apart more
than bring us together; and how a simple doughnut, delivered by a caring
soul, can become the essence of what makes a life valuable. With
gorgeous prose shot through with empathy, pain, fear, and the secret
truths inside all of us, Eva writes about the friends who taught her to
grow up and open her heart--and how the relentlessness of suffering can
give rise to the greatest joy.
