A Heart in a Body in the World

By: Deb Caletti

Narrated by: Julia Whelan

SELECTED AS ONE OF THE YOUNG ADULT LIBRARY SERVICES ASSOCIATION’S 2019 AMAZING AUDIOBOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS!

“This is one for the ages.” —Gayle Forman, author of the #1 bestseller If I Stay
“A book everyone should read right now.” —The New York Times Book Review
“A vital and heartbreaking story that brings together the #MeToo movement, the effects of gun violence, and the struggle of building oneself up again after crisis.” —Elle
“Equal parts heartbreaking and hopeful.” —BookPage

A Printz Honor Book

Each step on Annabelle’s 2,700 mile cross-country run brings her closer to facing a trauma from her past in National Book Award finalist Deb Caletti’s novel about the heart, all the ways it breaks, and its journey to healing. Because sometimes against our will, against all odds, we go forward.

Then…

Annabelle’s life wasn’t perfect, but it was full—full of friends, family, love. And a boy…whose attention Annabelle found flattering and unsettling all at once.

Until that attention intensified.

Now…

Annabelle is running. Running from the pain and the tragedy from the past year. With only Grandpa Ed and the journal she fills with words she can’t speak out loud, Annabelle runs from Seattle to Washington, DC, and toward a destination she doesn’t understand but is determined to reach. With every beat of her heart, every stride of her feet, Annabelle steps closer to healing—and the strength she discovers within herself to let love and hope back into her life.

Annabelle’s journey is the ultimate testament to the human heart, and how it goes on after being broken.

Phenomenal

This book helped me heal just a tiny bit more from a trauma that happened 20 years ago. It helped me learn that there is power in grief, there is power in loss, there is power in survival. And it’s more important than the false power some people will try to force over you.

Captures grief and guilt in a way that will stay with you too

This book really brings you into a first hand perspective that is unfortunately reality for many people who face relationship violence and gun violence. This book made me feel as if I was personally on a run with the main character, feeling her emotions as she tries to heal from tragedy. I recommend this book to anyone who is trying to mend a broken heart from the grasping hands of trauma. Thank you Deb Caletti!

Get ready to feel a full spectrum of emotions!

Read for a virtual book club I just joined. The characters are so well written and real. The author clearly has experience with trauma and loss and the progression through grief. I related to so many of the feelings the main character was experiencing. I wept often and learned some great strategies for processing my own deep wounds.

Long Time Favorite

this book is so good. been reading it for years. this is an excellent performance

Haunting

Many reviewers are classifying this as YA fiction. I'm way beyond young adult and I think this is fiction for the times we are now living in. Annabelle's running is secondary to the underlying story of the book in my opinion. It is such a powerful and haunting story which tackles many of the issues of today's society without rubbing your nose in them. Definitely a book that will make you think.