EXCLUSIVE. Excerpt from one of the event books of the year. “Who has never experienced a moment of blunder that makes them feel ashamed?”

After the huge success of Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert returns with her first non-fiction book in a decade, Till the Great River Do Us Part. The volume, immediately declared a Bestseller by the New York Times, was recently also published in Romanian by the Humanitas Publishing House, which offers an excerpt exclusively to Hotnews readers.

“I wrote this book for myself—and for inquisitive people, thirsty people, restless people, people who feel trapped, people who, perhaps from childhood, have felt that there must be a higher meaning to life than what we've been shown,” says Elizabeth Gilbert, quoted by the publisher.

• Elizabeth Gilbert is the author of 11 volumes of fiction and nonfiction, which have sold more than 25 million copies worldwide, spent more than two hundred weeks on The New York Times bestseller list, and been translated into more than fifty languages. She was a finalist for the National Book Award, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the PEN/Hemingway Award. Through her books and speeches, she has contributed, for decades, to the way we understand creativity, spirituality, courage, compassion and love. Followed by millions of readers on social media, she remains one of the most beloved and influential literary voices of our time, writes Humanitas.

Excerpt from the book

“This book, with all the stories, prayers, poems, journal entries, photographs and
her drawings, is the fruit of my attempts to tell the truth about what happened between me and
Rayya Elias. Our friendship, our love story, the beauty, the anger and the pain of it
I had a share. It is a story of Rayya's addiction, relapse and death. And the story
of my own addiction and the moment I gave up control so I could start my own
recovery.

But this book is not only dedicated to those whose lives have been affected by addictions, their own or those around them, although I believe that these two categories will, sooner or later, come to include almost all of us. This book also shows the countless ways in which, despite their tremendous efforts to lead healthy and balanced lives, people can sometimes be dragged through soul complications and tragic proportions and fail in realms completely foreign to their true nature.

“How the hell did I get here?” Here is a question we will all have to answer once in our lives. Or maybe even several times. Who hasn't experienced a moment of blunder that makes them feel ashamed? Who hasn't found themselves in frightening, isolating, shame-laden, soul-crushing situations? Who has not longed to be freed from suffering? And who hasn't turned to substances, people, behaviors, or sources of distraction to get a little respite from struggling with life's inherent difficulties? (…)

The book Da Face talks about the search for relief and how much wildness and depravity that path can entail.

Even for the strongest of us.

Even for the bravest.

I hope with all my heart that you didn't fall into as big of a mess as Rayya and I did at some points in our journey together. Even if you've never really lost your compass, I still think we're the same in some ways, and that any of us could have been in Rayya's shoes.

Therefore, I offer this book with love and respect to anyone who may need it.

Rayya liked to use the map of downtown New York as a working metaphor when she came
it's about her friendships and relationships.

Here's why: First, she said, you have Fifth Avenue friends, the ones in the center of the map. They
it's the people you're never yourself to. You only allow them access to things of
surface, and they do the same. These are casual and background knowledge
professional. Everyone strives to impress others; everyone lies. (…)

As you head east, however, the friends on Fourth and Third Avenue appear. You are polite to them too,
but you let them see a little more of your true nature. I like jokes, you can relax a little
around them, to reach a certain degree of intimacy. Maybe you met their family. Maybe you have
was at their wedding. You have a sincere affection for them, but they have yet to reach your heart.

Walk a little further and meet friends on Second and First Avenue. There are really things here
said. These people really know you, which you can say about them too. You don't know each other since yesterday
from today. Maybe you've always been neighbors. Or you traveled together. Or you've started a business
together. You have witnessed each other's successes and failures and can talk honestly,
telling you things that hurt. They are your trusted people, you can count on them, they will always be there for you
next to

But it's not until you reach close friends in Alphabet City that you can talk about a closeness
genuine, Rayya used to say. Your friends on Avenues A, B, C and D are the ones who, although you have
passed through great trials, continue to love you. The people who bailed you out
from prison. The ones who came to visit you while you were in rehab, who know who you messed with, who held you when you vomited, whose couch you took refuge on when you were going through a divorce. They confiscated your car keys when the situation called for it. You cried in their arms
when you lost your job, your mother, your child, your mind. You stood by each other in hospital waiting rooms,
at the morgue, in family planning clinics. They called you when they had a panic attack
in the airport. Maybe you've had bitter fights and misunderstandings over the years, and maybe you don't
you talked for a while You've screwed up over and over again. You had to reconcile. These are the ones
best friends you will ever have in your life.

But the New York map doesn't stop there.

Go a little further.

If you are very lucky, it is possible to meet a friend, once in a lifetime, who will
walk all the way to the East River with you, Ryya used to claim. This is it
the friend who knows everything. There's no way you can take this man by the nose. It's the one that reads you from
a mail and who immediately realizes that something is wrong. And you know that terrible secret that na
never reached anyone's ears? This person knows it. Heck, he might as well have been there
when the horror happened. However, you won't lose it no matter what you do. He is the man who
you call in the brains of the night, when you have no solution left.

– You are the man with whom I will go to the great water, Rayya told me.
That's exactly how it was. And I was proud of it.
And she was the same as far as I was concerned.
We both knew it, everyone knew it. It was like a noble title for me.
So it's kind of understandable that when I discovered that Rayya was dying, I
we started talking about her departure as about going “to the big water”.
“I want you to come with me right up to the high water,” she told me, when she received the diagnosis
terminal stage cancer.
I promised him that I would.
“I can't go into the river with you,” I told him. But I'll walk with you to the edge of the bank. i will be
with you every step of the way.

Scared as we were, we found solace in those beautiful words. But this is where the metaphor of the map that Rayya resorted to comes into play.

If you're familiar with the geography of downtown New York, you probably know that the road
from Fifth Avenue to the East River is not exactly a pleasant walk. (…)

I mean if you promise someone you'll accompany them “right to the river” you're in for a ride
dangerous. It's romantic, but also dangerous. The intimacy built at that level is tough. you
discover, in yourself and in the other, things that will scare you and hurt you; and you will pass through
events that will change you. I wouldn't have missed the ride with Rayya for anything in the world. (…)
I promised my much-loved friend Rayya Elias that I would accompany her right to that water
great.
And God is my witness that I kept my word!”

*Elizabeth Gilbert, Until the great river separates us, Humanitas Publishing House, 2026, translated by Ioana Ioniță