I AM, I AM, I AM by Maggie O’Farrell

Have you ever had a near death experience? How about two? 

This woman had fourteen and her book cuts through the heart ️of it all. 

Strength, determination, hope, unconditional love – they keep you alive. They make you move forward and grab life by the horns. Reading Maggie O’Farrell “I am I am I am” I shed tears and I felt things I couldn’t imagine. This story makes you so aware of life’s fragility and determines you to make every heartbeat count. 

Can you imagine living so many near death experiences? Can you imagine losing so many pregnancies you lose count and hope? Can you really imagine how it feels to live with the fear that your child might die any day? The same child you tried to conceive for so many years? 

I read this book around the time when I myself suffered a miscarriage and almost lost my life so her feelings and this book made so much sense to me. I could understand it all maybe too much and too soon.

“Nearly losing my life at the age of eight made me sanguine – perhaps to a fault – about death,” she explains. “I knew it would happen, at some point, and the idea didn’t scare me; its proximity felt instead almost familiar.”

“We are, all of us, wandering about in states of oblivion, borrowing our time, seizing our days, escaping our fates, slipping through loopholes, unaware of when the axe may fall.”

This book is a celebration of every breath Maggie O’Farrell’s taken

BOOK CLUB QUESTIONS

• O’Farrell skips around in time rather than telling her stories chronologically. Why do you think she does this? What effect does it have on the reader?
• The chapter in which O’Farrell narrowly avoids being hit by a car is called “Spine, Legs, Pelvis, Abdomen, Head.” What does this refer to?
• Several of O’Farrell’s near-death experiences relate to the fact that she’s female. What role does gender play here?
• After her “missed miscarriage,” what makes O’Farrell so reluctant to have the operation?
• When exactly did you shed the first tear while reading this book?
• Did you relate to any of her experiences?
• I think she is just insanely brave to face it all. What’s your opinion?

BUY THE BOOK

• Waterstones
• WHSmith
• Amazon

Grab a box of tissues and some wine to go with this book. It’s raw, it’s death and it’s love and it will make you rethink your life