Smile cover art

Smile

The Story of a Face

Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 months free
Try for £0.00
£8.99/mo thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Offer ends 31 July 2025 at 23:59 GMT.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Smile

By: Sarah Ruhl
Narrated by: Sarah Ruhl
Try for £0.00

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends 31 July 2025 23:59 GMT. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Confirm Purchase
Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.
Cancel

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The extraordinary story of one woman's 10-year medical and metaphysical odyssey that brought her physical, creative, emotional and spiritual healing, by a MacArthur genius and two-time Pulitzer finalist.

With a play opening on Broadway, and every reason to smile, Sarah Ruhl has just survived a high-risk pregnancy when she discovers the left side of her face is completely paralysed. She is assured that 90 percent of Bell's palsy patients see spontaneous improvement and experience a full recovery.... But Sarah is in the unlucky 10 per cent. And for a woman, wife, mother and artist working in theatre, the paralysis and the disconnect between the interior and exterior brings significant and specific challenges. So Ruhl begins an intense decade-long search for a cure while simultaneously grappling with the reality of her new face - one that, while recognisably her own - is incapable of accurately communicating feelings or intentions.

In a series of piercing, witty and lucid meditations, Ruhl chronicles her journey as a patient, wife, mother and artist. She explores the struggle of a body yearning to match its inner landscape, the pain of postpartum depression, the story of a marriage, being a playwright and working mother to three small children and the desire for a resilient spiritual life in the face of illness.

Brimming with insight, humility and levity, Smile is a triumph by one of America's leading playwrights. It is an intimate examination of loss and reconciliation, and above all else, the importance of perseverance and hope in the face of adversity.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 Sarah Ruhl (P)2022 Penguin Audio
Art & Literature Authors Women Marriage Witty Inspiring Theatre

Listeners also enjoyed...

My Caesarean cover art
Little Matches cover art
Finding Lina cover art
I'm Glad My Mom Died cover art
One Body cover art
The Beauty of Dusk cover art
Letter to a Young Female Physician cover art
About Us cover art
At the End of Life cover art
Justine cover art
The Elegance of the Hedgehog cover art
The Burning Light of Two Stars cover art
Growing Up Disabled in Australia cover art
Going Om cover art
Life's That Way cover art
Avalanche cover art
No reviews yet