Amen, Amen, Amen: Memoir of a Girl Who Couldn't Stop Praying (Among Other Things)

In this vibrant memoir, Abby Sher recounts her life with precision and humor as only a woman who is both a comedian and obsessive-compulsive can. The death of Abby’s father when she is eleven years old leaves a void that she fills with rituals: washing her hands, collecting litter, kissing her father’s photograph over and over. Then, with a child’s understanding of cause and effect, Abby begins to pray, certain that she can prevent further disaster. She carries the weight of this belief and the accompanying devotion to God through high school, college, and beyond, when it is joined by darker compulsions of anorexia and cutting.

Amen, Amen, Amen is an elegy to parents lost and to a youth consumed by grief and anxiety; it is a spiritual mystery about Abby’s search for answers and someone to guide her to them; and it is a romance about discovering the true nature of unconditional love. With remarkable candor and insight, Abby offers a brave and exquisitely written account of obsessive-compulsive disorder and the bounds and boundlessness of belief.