New life, no instructions : a memoir
(Book)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Pulitizer Prize winner Gail Caldwell pens a memoir on how seemingly faint winds can blow us wildly off course; on how spending time with a beloved animal can benefit our basic humanity; and on what it means to overcome, at middle age, a multitude of blows.

Caldwell had contracted polio as a child, and as she matured it reduced her walk to a painful limp. When a new doctor said she needed a hip replacement-- and that her leg could be lengthened-- she no longer saw her body in decline and realized she could live pain free. She describes how the resulting rehabilitation opened up a world of understanding, possibility, and connection.