Prologue, Chapter One
A memoir by the author of the #1 bestseller The Lovely Bones. In a memoir hailed for its searing candor and wit, Alice Sebold reveals how her life was utterly transformed when, as a nineteen-year-old college freshman, she was brutally raped and beaten in

Chapter One, Part 2
I heard more party-goers on the path, but I was far away now. He made noises and rammed it in. Rammed it and rammed it and those on the path, those so far away, living in the world where I had lived, could not be reached by me now.

Chapter One, Part 3
I thought, even then, that this doctor needed the Valium he prescribed for me more than I did. He was exhausted. I remember telling him I knew about Valium and so he didn't need to explain. It will make you calm, he said.