It's three a.m. and Elizabeth Gilbert is sobbing on the bathroom floor. She's in her thirties; she has a husband, a house, they're trying for a baby - and she doesn't want any of it. Miserable and desperate, she does something she has never done before: pray. 'Hello God. How are you? I'm Liz. Please tell me what to do.' And then a voice responds. 'Go back to bed, Liz.' It is more conversation than conversion. Three years later a bitter divorce and a turbulent love affair have left her battered and bewildered, but with a freedom she's never had before. So Liz begins a year-long journey to find happiness and balance in her life. First four months in Rome, where she learns Italian from identically handsome twins and gains twenty five pounds. Then to an ashram in India, where she finds that enlightenment entails getting up in the middle of the night to scrub the temple floor - and manages to lay some ghosts to rest. Finally she heads to Bali, where a toothless medicine man of indeterminate age offers her a new path to peace: simply sit still and smile. And slowly happiness begins to creep up on her. Funny, tender and thoughtful, Eat, Pray, Love is a hilarious travelogue and a brave quest for spiritual enlightment in the face of natural scepticism. Consoling and inspiring, written with tremendous wit, intelligence and sympathy, it is a book for anyone who has ever felt lost, or thought there must be another, better way.