All the Way to the River cover art

All the Way to the River

Love, Loss and Liberation

 Preview

Audible Standard 30-day free trial

Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Get unlimited access to bingeable podcasts.
Standard auto renews for £5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

All the Way to the River

By: Elizabeth Gilbert
Narrated by: Elizabeth Gilbert
Try Standard free

£5.99 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for £15.12

Buy Now for £15.12

About this listen

 Bloomsbury presents All the Way to the River, written and read by Elizabeth Gilbert.

In her first non-fiction book in a decade, the no. 1 bestselling writer who taught millions of readers to live authentically (Eat Pray Love) and creatively (Big Magic) shows how to break free.

In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: the two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe.

What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening?

All the Way to the River is a landmark memoir that will resonate with anyone who has ever been captive to love – or to any other passion, substance or craving – and who yearns, at long last, for liberation.©2025 Elizabeth Gilbert (P)2025 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc Best of 2025 Editors Select Grief & Loss Personal Development Women Heartfelt Inspiring Thought-Provoking

Editorial Review

Addiction, loss, and healing
Elizabeth Gilbert first inspired us to journey toward ourselves in Eat, Pray, Love. In her latest memoir, she takes us down a rockier path toward self-actualization as she contends with the loss of her life partner, Rayya, and their individual struggles with addiction. Gilbert invites us along as she confronts and overcomes the rawest edges of herself: codependency, denial, people pleasing, and the unique pain of building a healthier relationship to love and sex after unimaginable heartbreak. All The Way to the River is a testament to the power of faith, connection, and determination, urging each of us to envision (through tear-soaked eyes) a better future for ourselves no matter the current circumstances. —Rachael X., Audible Editor

Critic reviews

Heart-breaking, sometimes harrowing, but with profound honesty, Elizabeth Gilbert asks us to hope. No one who reads this book will ever forget it (Meg Mason)
An absolute masterclass and truth-bomb of a memoir, packed with rawness, courage and poetry. I feel changed by it. The deepest truest manifesto I’ve ever read on recovery, addiction, facing yourself and what it means to belong. I think many people will be shaken awake by this book (Emma Gannon)
All stars
Most relevant
Finished this book in no time as its just too hard to put down. THANK you for speaking truthfully and honest. What a talent of words

Stunning writing, Capturing story and truth tellin

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It was gripping from beginning to end. Revealing, raw, and one of the most astonishingly honest books I’ve ever come across! I don’t think anyone has ever written like this before. Quite an education into drug abuse and the modus operandi of the user and the 12 step programme. It‘s a gem as a guide for the relationship to self and others. One for the searchers curriculum.

Outstanding, raw, brutally honest. Quite a revelation and what a journey!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I loved this book, really giving me insights into my own codependency and addictive behaviours. Thank you Liz

very powerful, honest and inspiring

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I became fully immersed in this audio book, narrated beautifully by Elizabeth Gilbert, of whom I am a devoted fan. I appreciated her capacity for truth telling and self reflection, especially around co dependency & love as an addiction. I was disappointed that she left out some absolutely amazing short stories that I’d heard her telling live around Rayya’s journey to death and dying. Some of the dysfunction in this story is profound & disturbing. I feel she relies heavily on the 12 step program but is a good model for it too. Not my favourite of her books but real & important too.

Deep, disappointing, thought provoking, real

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A beautiful reading by Liz Gilbert. I laughed, cried and was moved and changed by this book. It’s a conduit for deeper spiritual connection, and an invitation to recovery that I step into with gratitude. Thanks to Elizabeth Gilbert. Love this.

Life changing

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews