This Is the Door

It’s a blessing to live while Darcey Steinke is writing, as This Is the Door makes abundantly clear. Kurt Cobain, Audre Lorde, Nietzsche, Simone Weil, the author’s father - all are here, along with many more, in a tapestry that makes the reader feel less alone in embodied life, here rendered as both excruciating and holy – MAGGIE NELSONThis Is the Door is a work of piercing grace, philosophical wisdom and rare emotional power. By tracing the history of her own body and spirit, as well as studying the suffering of others, Steinke shows us how physical pain and spiritual faith inform and influence each other. This is a work of art that could only have emerged from the crucible of truth. It’s absolutely beautiful – ELIZABETH GILBERTPart philosophical meditation, part personal history, This Is the Door is a riveting exploration of what it means to be a body in and out of pain. In this eloquent and wide-ranging book, Steinke illuminates the darkest, most private corners of human experience with enormous generosity and grace – JENNY OFFILLThere are not many authors I want to read on this subject but Darcey Steinke is absolutely one of them because of the clarity of her voice. There’s a ferocity to her way of metabolising the world around her that I find so compelling – OCTAVIA BRIGHTThe most honest, searching and profound meditation I have read in quite some time on what it means to live in a body. Darcey Steinke writes with courage, humility and vulnerability. What a precious book this is – LAUREN ELKINA riveting, roving, deeply humane tour through the body’s capacity for pain - essential reading for anyone who has known the loneliness (and sometimes ecstasy) of suffering, and wishes to meet the ancient and astute lineages to which they belong – MELISSA FEBOSBy identifying and sharing the source and the meaning of pain, whether in the body, mind or soul, Darcey has demystified this universal but elusively indescribable experience. Powered by the clarity of her writing, she offers healing and hope in abundance. Both as a sufferer and as a reader, I was completely immersed, moved and exhilarated by this wonderful book – JULIET NICOLSONFull of wisdom both ancient and cutting-edge, Darcey Steinke’s glorious This Is the Door is part lyrical memoir, part fascinating research project and wholly comforting for anyone grappling with questions of what it means to suffer – ADA CALHOUNHow to articulate the experience of reading a book that so completely altered - even saved -my relationship to my body and to a lifetime of severe pain? Steinke’s revelatory, lucid prose illuminates the paths others have found through life’s darkest landscapes - grief and heartbreak, pain and suffering, dying and death - leading the reader to find their own way to the other side – EMMA BOLDENThis Is the Door is a visceral meditation, exploring not only the often wordless anatomy of pain but also the lonely, howling journey of it and through it – TIA LEVINGS

Darcey Steinke is the author of multiple works of non-fiction and novels, including her most recent memoir, Flash Count Diary. Her books have been translated into ten languages and her nonfiction has appeared widely, including in the Times, New York Times and Paris Review. She has taught at Columbia University, New York University and the American University of Paris. She lives with her husband in Brooklyn.