RIGHTS LIST SELF-HELP MARZO 2020
INSPIRATIONAL MEMOIRS
GROUP: How One Therapist and a Circle of Strangers Saved My Life by Christie Tate
GROUP is the debut memoir of a guarded, over-achieving, self-lacerating young lawyer who reluctantly agrees to get psychologically and emotionally naked in a room of six complete strangers — her psychotherapy group — and in turn finds human connection, and herself.
Christie Tate had just been named the #1 student in her law school class and had her eating disorder under control at long last. Why then was she driving through Chicago hoping someone would shoot her in the head? Why was she fantasizing about putting an end to the isolation and sadness that continued to plague her in spite of all of her achievements?
Enter Dr. Rosen, a therapist who calmly assures her that he can transform her life if she joins one of his psychotherapy groups. Her part of the deal? Show up and be honest about everything—her sexual history, her eating habits, her childhood. Christie is skeptical, and insists that inviting six complete strangers into the darkest corners of her shame would be unlikely to help. She is defective, the doomed possessor of a heart so slick and unscored nothing can attach to it; she is beyond cure. Dr. Rosen issues a nine-word prescription that will change everything: “You don’t need a cure, you need a witness.”
So begins her entry into the strange, terrifying, and ultimately life-changing world of group therapy. Christie resists and mocks the ways of the group at first, and is initially put off by Dr. Rosen’s outlandish directives (“Bingeing on apples every night before bed? From now on call fellow group member Rory every night before you go to sleep and report how many apples you ate. Just the number, and then hang up.” “Flirting with a classmate who has a girlfriend? Next time you see him in the library, inform him matter-of-factly that you’re a cock-tease.”) But as her defenses break down and she comes to trust Dr. Rosen and to depend
Berla & Griffini Rights Agency – via Stampa 4 – 20123 Milano tel. +39.02.80504179 – fax +39.02.89010646
on the sessions, the prescribed nightly phone calls, she begins to understand what it means to connect. She starts to wonder if maybe her slick, unscored heart isn’t beyond attaching after all.
Group is a deliciously addictive read, and with Christie as guide—skeptical of her own capacity for connection and intimacy, but hopeful in spite of herself—we are given a front row seat to the daring, exhilarating, painful, and hilarious journey that is group therapy, an under-explored process that breaks you down, and then reassembles you so that all the pieces finally fit.
Christie Tate is a Chicago-based writer and essayist. She has been published in The New York Times (Modern Love), The Rumpus, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, Eastern Iowa Review, and elsewhere. Kiese Laymon selected her essay, Promised Lands, as the winner of the New Ohio Review’s nonfiction contest, which was published this fall.
Rights: Simon&Schuster/ Avid Reader Press Publication date: October 2020
* - * - * - * - *
THE GIFT OF FORGIVENESS. Inspiring Stories from Those Who Have Overcome the Unforgivable by Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt
A fresh, inspiring book on learning how to forgive--with firsthand stories from those who have learned to let go of resentment and find peace
"When we learn to embrace forgiveness, it opens us up to healing, hope, and a new world of possibility." --Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt
Written with grace and understanding and based on more than twenty in-depth interviews and stories as well as personal reflections from Schwarzenegger Pratt herself, The Gift of Forgiveness is about one of the most difficult challenges in life-- learning to forgive. Here, Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt shows us what we can learn from those who have struggled with forgiveness, some still struggling, and others who have been able to forgive what might seem truly unforgivable. The book features experiences from those well-known and unknown, including Elizabeth Smart, who learned to forgive her captors; Sue Klebold, whose son, Dylan, was one of the Columbine shooters, learning empathy and how to forgive herself; Chris Williams, who forgave the drunken teenager who killed his wife and child; and of course Schwarzenegger Pratt's own challenges and path to forgiveness in her own life. All provide different journeys to forgiveness and the process--sometimes slow and thorny, sometimes almost instantaneous--by which they learned to forgive and let go.
The Gift of Forgiveness is a perfect blend of personal insights, powerful quotations, and hard-won wisdom for those seeking a way to live with greater acceptance, grace, and peace.
Berla & Griffini Rights Agency – via Stampa 4 – 20123 Milano tel. +39.02.80504179 – fax +39.02.89010646
Katherine Schwarzenegger Pratt is a New York Times bestselliNg author, animal advocate, daughter, sister, wife and step-mom. As a passionate animal advocate, Katherine works as an Ambassador for Best Friends Animal Society and the ASPCA, lending her time, voice and energy to spread awareness about animal rescue. As an author, Katherine has skillfully translated her own personal experiences into all four of her books that speak to her generation. Katherine lives with her family in Los Angeles. Daughter of actor and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Maria Shriver, she was recently married to actor Chris Pratt. We can expect wide media coverage for the book not only because of its subject, but because of its high-profile author.
Rights: PenguinUSA/Pamela Dorman Books Publication date: March 2020; 224 pages
Berla & Griffini Rights Agency – via Stampa 4 – 20123 Milano tel. +39.02.80504179 – fax +39.02.89010646