Friends, have you failed? Have you failed so spectacularly that you felt as if some essential part of yourself, something you had always known yourself by, had died? Have you been a victim of cosmic violence–illness, accident, or malice–that, through no fault of your own, irrevocably altered the arc of your life?

Have you felt the dreams of your youth withering on the vine? Have you felt the hot shame of not living up, time and again, to the person you thought you were?

If so, rejoice. Lidia Yuknavitch is on our side. And if this woman stands at the center of the cultural enterprise, none of us stand outside.