Author reading – Gail Caldwell | New Life, No Instructions

Pulitzer Prize-winning book critic Gail Caldwell (Let’s Take the Long Way Home) returns with a memoir about coming of age, at any age. In a span of ten years, Gail lost her best friend, her mother, and her dog–her closest companions. Her childhood polio had reduced her walk to a painful limp, and everything looked bleak–until a routine doctor’s visit opened up the possibility for a surgery to correct her gait. Not only did her vitality return, so did her sense of self. In this beautiful memoir, Gail celebrates both loss and belonging, and the friends, family, and dogs that ushered her along.