Smile

She recounts learning to find joy in small things - such as regaining the ability to blink - Ruhl proves that even life at its most mundane can be fascinating. This incredibly inspiring story offers hope where it's least expected

Publisher's Weekly, starred review

Within her chronicle of illness, the author deftly weaves memories of her father; thoughts about motherhood, friendship, writing; and perceptive reflections about the meaning of smiling, especially for women... A captivating, insightful memoir

Kirkus, starred review

With a poet's sharp eye for detail and a playwright's grasp of both the tragic and the absurd, Sarah Ruhl has written a remarkable book. Smile is at once a gripping story and a profound exploration of the mysteries of illness. I know of nothing like it

James Shapiro, author of Shakespeare in a Divided America

I'm now accustomed to Sarah's whipping out profound and necessary books that I can't put down even when I smell dinner burning, but I guess I wasn't prepared for her book about Bell's Palsy to provide some of the most deeply romantic passages about married love I have ever read. I smiled, for sure, but I also swooned and ached and was left with goose-flesh more than once. I adore this book

Mary Louise Parker, New York Times bestselling author of Dear Mr. You

Ravishing ... that rare and gorgeous melding of gemlike, literary insights, raw honesty, heart break and radiant wisdom. It took my breath away. For real

V (formerly Eve Ensler), author of I Am an Emotional Creature, The Vagina Monologues and The Apology

I bet everyone reading this has had difficulty expressing an internal reality. Now imagine an affliction that separates the two physically. With poignancy and power, Smile helps us all to find ways of expressing our internal truth. It helped me to both learn and grow

Gloria Steinem, author of My Life on the Road

Smile is staggeringly great... All of us have disappointments that we try to keep secret because we're ashamed and want to be above them. We are not above them. And Smile speaks to this predicament with extreme insight

Beth Henley, author of Crimes of the Heart

Smile is not just a medical memoir it's the story of a passionate and committed woman trying to forge a life that nourishes her creativity, her children, her health and joy... this book serves as a welcome invitation to worry about it all a little less, and smile a little more

Alice O'Keeffe, Guardian

Extraordinary... smart, quipping, pacy... a practical investigation that explores how, when half your face goes on strike, new ways have to be found to do a smile's work

Kate Kellaway, Observer

Although we come to know Ruhl's courage, intelligence and humour, Smile seems not really a book about Ruhl herself, or Bell's palsy either, but an appeal for some acceptance of what is, for each of us

Sheena Joughin, Times Literary Supplement

The best book I've read in the past year is Smile: The Story of a Face by playwright Sarah Ruhl. She developed Bell's palsy after the birth of her twins, which impaired her ability to smile or show emotion. Her story is intimate and revealing about what it is to smile and what it means when you can't. I am her friend and didn't know the details, and her personal story touched me deeply.

Cynthia Nixon