Pieces You'll Never Get Back

Winner of the Asian Pacific American Award for Literature
Los Angeles Times, 1 of 10 Books to Read in March
San Francisco Chronicle, A Most Anticipated Book of the Year
A Zibby Owens Most Anticipated Title

“Ali’s extraordinary journey to rebuild a shattered sense of identity as a brain-damaged mother to a newborn—is chronicled in unflinching detail in her forthcoming memoir, Pieces You’ll Never Get Back. Ali, an author, public speaker and continuing studies instructor at Stanford University, recounts her harrowing experience in short, lyrical chapters, unbound from chronological narrative . . . Ali’s memoir presents a vivid and visceral portrait of existence within a shattered mind.” —Caitlin Gibson, The Washington Post

“Pieces You’ll Never Get Back: A Memoir of Unlikely Survival is a powerful, intensely personal book. As an unflinching patient’s-eye record of a dangerous, poorly understood condition, it may also be an important one. ” —Kevin Canfield, San Francisco Chronicle

“Harrowing . . . [Ali writes] with intensity and truth about complex themes such as inequities in healthcare for women, especially brown and Black women. In the book, she also extrapolates connections between cultures, specifically American and Muslim, finding common characteristics in Christian and Muslim religious concepts, emphasizing the importance of surrendering control, living with memory loss, and addressing how names given to children and communities reflect history.” —Lou Fancher, East Bay Express

“Samina Ali has managed to write a hopeful and loving memoir about the most terrifying and challenging events in her life: the traumatic birth of her first son and the accompanying brain injury that left her a shell of the person she once was. This is an inspiring story of recovery that you won’t want to miss.”—Karla Strand, Ms.

“Samina’s story of self-advocacy and rediscovery will remind readers that healing is non-linear, and will be a beacon to anyone who has survived a traumatic birth or life-altering injury.” —Mandie Montes, Oprah Daily

“Ali elegantly retraces this story, interspersing it with reflections on her Muslim faith; her upbringing between Hyderabad, India, and Minnesota; and her identities as a writer and a mother.” —Alta

“This harrowing memoir is a poignant reflection on resilience, faith and identity.” —Sarah Stiefvater, PureWow

“Her stunning memoir […] straddles cultures, and even life and death, as Ali recovers painstakingly slowly, navigating motherhood while putting herself back together like a puzzle.” —Leslie Stephens, Morning Person

“A searing memoir . . . Supple, luminous prose carries a message of near inconceivable resilience and hope. Pieces You’ll Never Get Back is an inspiring memoir about rising from despair and triumphing over catastrophic brain injury.” —Kristine Morris, Foreword Reviews

“How does one find the peace and acceptance to move on from a tragedy such as this? Ali’s ability to focus on healing and rebuilding severed bonds with her past and present self is a remarkable exercise in letting go. A determination to write helped establish new neurological pathways in her brain to replace those that ‘were simply gone.’ There are astonishing developments and spiritual detours in Pieces You’ll Never Get Back, with flashes of the trailblazing Muslim women’s rights activist Ali was destined to become after her miraculous recovery.” —Shahina Piyarali, Shelf Awareness

“Poignant . . . Heartbreaking yet hopeful, Pieces You’ll Never Get Back embodies a woman full of grit and the determination to rediscover herself and heal from inconceivable damage.” —Booklist (starred review)

“Every woman, and every man in her life, should read this book. Beautifully crafted, clear, and disarming, it is not a new motherhood memoir so much as it is a profound meditation on faith and connectedness, the self and uncertainty, and above all, recovery and resurrection. It’s an intimate portrait of one woman as she moves amid the wilderness between life and death, and it is astounding.“ —Nina McConigley, PEN Open Book Award-winning author of Cowboys and East Indians

“In Pieces You’ll Never Get Back, Samina Ali weaves a deeply moving story of resilience, spirituality, and the bonds that unite us across faiths and cultures. It is both a call for greater awareness of maternal health and a celebration of our shared humanity. A powerful testament to hope.” —Reza Aslan, author of An American Martyr in Persia

“In this vivid and visceral tale of a childbirth gone unimaginably wrong, what rivets most is the author’s fierce and enduring will to make herself whole by writing her story. A triumph.” —Amy Irvine, author of Trespass and Desert Cabal