Lucky

Alice Sebold 1999

Devastation Rating

Emotionally Ruined
memoir rape survival justice

Our Take

Sebold was raped as a college freshman and her memoir opens with the assault, on the first page, in the first paragraph. The title is what the cop told her — you're lucky you survived. The luck is Sebold's subject: what it means to survive something that kills other women, and what that luck costs.

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