Lucky

In November 2021, Anthony Broadwater, who was convicted of the 1981 rape of Alice Sebold and spent sixteen years in prison, was fully exonerated. Serious failings emerged in the 1982 prosecution, which was based largely on faulty witness identification and flawed science. As a result Anthony Broadwater's life has been irreparably damaged. Alice Sebold's rapist will, in all likelihood, never be known.In Lucky Alice Sebold reveals how her life was irrevocably changed when, as an eighteen-year-old college freshman, she was raped and beaten inside a tunnel near her campus.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 moving, Alice Sebold shines a light on the true experience of violent trauma.

“A rueful, razor-sharp memoir . . . Sebold tells what it's like to go through a particular kind of nightmare in order to tell what it's like - slowly, bumpily, triumphantly - to heal.”

A rueful, razor-sharp memoir . . . Sebold tells what it’s like to go through a particular kind of nightmare in order to tell what it’s like – slowly, bumpily, triumphantly – to heal. -- Sarah Kerr Vogue
Ms. Sebold [has] the ability to capture both the ordinary and the extraordinary, the banal and the horrific, in lyrical, unsentimental prose. New York Times

Alice Sebold is the author of the bestselling novels The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon, and the memoir Lucky. She lives in California.

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 had been 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

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