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  • I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death

  • By: Maggie O'Farrell
  • Narrated by: Daisy Donovan
  • Length: 5 hrs and 58 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (82 ratings)

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I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death cover art

I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death

By: Maggie O'Farrell
Narrated by: Daisy Donovan
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Publisher's Summary

As selected for the Zoe Ball Bookclub, a Book of the Year in The Sunday Times, The Times, Guardian, Irish Times, Observer, Red and The Telegraph.

I Am, I Am, I Am is a memoir with a difference - the enthralling story of an extraordinary woman's life in near-death experiences. Insightful, inspirational, a story you finish newly conscious of life's fragility, determined to make every heartbeat count.

A childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital. Shocking, electric, unforgettable, this is the extraordinary memoir from Costa Novel-Award winner and Sunday Times best-selling author Maggie O'Farrell. It is a book to make you question yourself. What would you do if your life was in danger, and what would you stand to lose?  

I Am, I Am, I Am will speak to readers who loved Cheryl Strayed's Wild or Max Porter's Grief is the Thing with Feathers.

©2017 Maggie O'Farrell (P)2017 Headline Publishing Group Ltd

What listeners say about I Am, I Am, I Am: Seventeen Brushes with Death

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Performance was terrible

The stories were great but the performance was very overdone and amateurish, couldn't finish as a result.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Genius

Engaging, visceral, shocking, funny, tense, liberating, unique and exquisitely written. Daily Donovan’s narration is a masterclass.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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Superb

Beautifully written and wonderfully read. This was a unique and delightful memoir. Highly recommend it

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Beautiful narration

Such a heart wrenching story narrated perfectly for the prose. After loving Hamnet I’m so pleased I reached for this one.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

A riveting and moving memoir

This wonderful memoir presents a selection of thematically linked events from the author’s life. The non linear structure allows ideas and insights to emerge in layers, and it is only towards the end that there is overt commentary on what, from the author’s perspective, it all means. The subtitle forewarns that this will be an intense listen, but Maggie O’Farrell’s sure narrative touch ensured that I did not feel bombarded. That said, there are topics here that may be triggering, and I found myself sobbing at times. For me, this was something for which I feel grateful.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Brilliant in every way

I can't wait to listen again. So good. Each chapter a new story. i just loved this. My second Maggie O'Farrell both so human.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Topic not good in Covid

This book was a bad choice I made during the restrictions of Covid and so much illness & death around us. The topic was depressing for me.
However, it is well written by this talented author. I need to be more careful researching topics in future.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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outstanding!

Beautifully narrated. This has got to be one of the best books I have ever read.
Such a searing account of the author's encounters with death.
And the anguish and pain of parenting a child whose life is spent skirting the perimeter of death .A mother whose life is dominated by risk assessment and hypervigilance
I can't recommend this book enough

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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amazing book

Loved it! What a book! Each chapter introduces a different time and age of the author and her brushes with death, it was all so fascinating and written in such a way that you are kept wondering how each situation ended. Beautifully performed.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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Beautifully written so moving

If you read only one book in your life, read this one. So relatable. So poetic. So affirming. Tears still in my eyes.

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