Eat, Pray, Love summary

Elizabeth Gilbert had it all – a successful career as a writer, a beautiful new home in suburban New York, and a husband she adored. It was the picture-perfect life she had always dreamed of. But as she approached her early 30s, something felt deeply wrong. The natural instinct to settle down and start a family that she assumed would kick in . . . never did.

Instead, she found herself more excited about writing a story on a giant squid in New Zealand for her magazine job than the prospect of parenthood. Whenever she tried to envision having a baby, she just couldn't see it. Her marriage to her husband was slowly disintegrating as the disconnect between them grew wider. One night, wracked with sobs over her failing marriage, Gilbert ended up crumpled on her bathroom floor. In that rock-bottom moment, she did something highly uncharacteristic – she started fervently praying to an entity she suspected might be God.

For the next seven months, Gilbert continued having earnest conversations with the non-denominational, spiritual presence she thought of simply as God. She didn't belong to any particular faith, but felt drawn to connect with a higher power during this immensely difficult time in her life. Finally, after that period of soul-searching and reflection, she made the agonizing decision to divorce her husband, the man she once thought was her soulmate.

But what would she do next? Unmoored from the life she had planned, she moved in with her rebound fling, David. Yet that all-consuming but unstable relationship, coupled with her increasingly bitter and acrimonious divorce proceedings, only left Gilbert more lost. She was confused and flailing.

However, in the tumult, seeds of possibility began sprouting in Gilbert's life. First, she fulfilled a long-held dream of learning Italian by taking classes. Studying the language opened her eyes to a whole new culture and way of life. Second, she found an Indian guru and immersed herself in the spiritual practice of yoga, which quieted her mind and helped her find moments of peace. Third, an Indonesian medicine man and energy healer whom she’d profiled for a magazine assignment invited her to come live and study with him in Bali.

From these experiences trying to find her center again, a vision slowly took shape for the next phase of Gilbert's journey. She would go on an extended travel adventure of self-discovery and healing, traveling first to Italy to absorb the language more deeply through studying the Italianate culture and way of life. Then she would go to India to dive deeper into the spiritual dimension through devoting herself to the yogic tradition at its source. Finally, she would end up in Bali to live and study with the medicine man, absorbing the healing modalities and philosophies of that part of the world. With this revitalizing global quest ahead of her, there was a tiny flicker of hope inside Gilbert. Maybe she would find her way back to wholeness.