Smile: A Memoir

* A People Best Book of the Year * Time and The Washington Posts Most Anticipated List * Longlisted for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence *

From the MacArthur genius, two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, and playwright, this captivating, insightful memoir (Kirkus Reviews, starred review) is a beautiful meditation on identity and how we see ourselves (Real Simple).

With a play opening on Broadway, and every reason to smile, Sarah Ruhl has just survived a high-risk pregnancy when she discovers the left side of her face is completely paralyzed. She is assured that 90 percent of Bells palsy patients experience a full recoverylike Ruhls own mother. But Sarah is in the unlucky ten percent. And for a woman, wife, mother, and artist working in theater, the paralysis and the disconnect between the interior and exterior brings significant and specific challenges. So Ruhl begins an intense decade-long search for a cure while simultaneously grappling with the reality of her new faceone that, while recognizably her ownis incapable of accurately communicating feelings or intentions.

In a series of piercing, profound, and lucid meditations, Ruhl chronicles her journey as a patient, wife, mother, and artist. She explores the struggle of a body yearning to match its inner landscape, the pain of postpartum depression, the story of a marriage, being a playwright and working mom to three small children, and the desire for a resilient spiritual life in the face of illness.

An intimate and stunning (Publishers Weekly, starred review) examination of loss and reconciliation, Ruhl reminds us that a smile is not just a smile but a vital form of communication, of bonding, of what makes us human (The Washington Post). Brimming with insight, humility, and levity, Smile is a triumph by one of Americas leading playwrights.