A bestselling memoirist bravely tells the story of the night evil paid her a visit—and how prayer chased evil away

Beverly Donofrio had already lived two lives, first as a scrappy young mother on the streets of the East Village and later as the bestselling author of Riding in Cars with Boys. By the time she reached her fifties, she thought she had seen it all.

Now, even though she was living in a vibrant, picturesque Mexican town, where she practiced yoga, drank margaritas in her backyard, and took salsa lessons, she felt lost and was searching for monasteries to visit. The religious practice that had nourished her for several years had faded. She missed God. Then one night she woke to find a rapist holding a knife to her throat. So begins the memoir that charts Donofrio’s journey—a long and twisting road through denial, mourning, anger, vulnerability, and retreat at five very different monasteries.

Told through Donofrio’s brutally honest, often ribald, emotionally unsparing voice, Astonished is a tender and hopeful narrative of healing and learning to love life again.

Entering her 40th year, Beverly Donofrio, a “lapsed Catholic,” inexplicably begins collecting Virgin Mary memorabilia at yard sales. Soon, immersing herself in a spiritual quest, she makes a pilgrimage to the holy city of Medjugorje. There, she learns that Mary comes into a person’s life only when pride steps out and receives a bonus: hope. In Looking for Mary, Donofrio offers the universal story about a woman who–in a quest for the Blessed Mother–finds herself.

Best-selling author Beverly Donofrio is building a growing following of fans with her honest, moving accounts of experiences from her own colorful life. Riding in Cars with Boys–the basis of the hit movie starring Drew Barrymore–is her funny and touching account of growing up too fast in the 1960s. Once her strict family told her she couldn’t go to college, Beverly lost interest in everything except smoking, drinking, and rebelling against authority. She was a “bad” girl, and her behavior soon got her into trouble–as in the pregnant kind of trouble. From becoming a teen-aged wife and mother through finally going to college and getting her life back in order, Donofrio faced one challenge after another in her ambivalent efforts to “grow up” as she raised her son. By turns laugh-out-loud hilarious and poignantly insightful, Riding in Cars with Boys is perfectly served by a bright, smart narration from Christina Moore.