An exploration of human motivation, strength
Learning to Breathe: One Woman's Journey of Spirit and Survival
By Alison Wright; Hudson Street Press, August 2008, 271 pp.
Alison Wright has spent her life — and career as a photojournalist — trying to understand the world around her and documenting the global, human story of how and why people live.
A catastrophic bus crash in Laos nearly ends her physical life, but it opens her mind and soul to the possibilities we all have as residents on this big planet.
Her story of survival and recovery is gripping, but that alone wouldn't make it worth telling; the world is full of "great survivor" stories. What makes Wright's account so vivid is the deeper, broader understanding she gives us of human motivation, compassion and strength that, indeed, is the same the world around.
She writes with authority on global events and why those of us far removed from them should care. Readers go into this book thinking they're getting a memoir, but instead they're peeling back the curtain on how we all live and survive.
