Kate Bowler's memoir is a meditation on sense-making when there's no sense to be made, on letting go when we can't hold on, and on being unafraid even when we're terrified. And it happens to be hilarious. Above all, though, this is a love letter to life, and it's gorgeous. -- Lucy Kalanithi, MD, FACP, Clinical Assistant Professor of Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine
A heartbreaking, surprisingly funny memoir about faith and coming to grips with your own mortality . . . Everything Happens belongs on the shelf alongside other terrific books about this difficult subject, like Paul Kalanithi's When Breath Becomes Air and Atul Gawande's Being Mortal. Bowler's writing is direct and unsentimental. She's not saying her life is unfair or that she deserved better. She's just telling you what happened. -- Bill Gates * gatesnotes, Best Books List Summer 2018 *
I don't remember why I opened Everything Happens for a Reason, but once I did, I fell hard and fast for Kate Bowler. Her writing is naked, elegant, and gripping-she's like a Christian Joan Didion. Her spirit and perspective are so beautiful that halfway through- I closed the book, turned to my wife and said: 'I have to call someone to find out how this ends. I need to know before I keep reading if she's okay.' I don't think Kate wrote Everything Happens for a Reason to save anybody: she was just telling the truth about her life. Regardless, I left Kate's story feeling more present, grateful, and a hell of a lot less alone. And what else is art for? Everything Happens for A Reason is art in its highest form-and Kate Bowler is a true artist-with the pen, and with her life. -- Glennon Doyle, author of the #1 NYT Bestseller Love Warrior and president of Together Rising
Throughout, the author delivers raw emotion, realistic description, and candid assessments... An inspiring story of finding faith-in God, in family, and in oneself-while walking close to the Valley of the Shadow of Death. * Kirkus Reviews *
'. . . deeply moving . . . [Bowler] powerfully bears witness to the love, grace and holiness of God and his people. * Christianity magazine *
