How to Be Loved

A luminous memoir about how friendship saved one woman's life, for anyone who has loved a friend who was sick, grieving, or lost-and for anyone who has struggled to seek or accept help
Eva Hagberg spent her lonelyyouthlooking everywhere for connection: drugs, alcohol, therapists, boyfriends, girlfriends. Sometimes she found it, but always temporarily.Then, at age thirty, an undiscovered mass in her brain ruptured. So did her life.Abrain surgery markedonlythe beginning of a long journey,and when her illness hit a critical stage, it forced her to finally admit the long-suppressed truth: she was vulnerable, she needed help, and she longed to grow. She needed true friendship for the first time.
How to Be Lovedis the story of how an isolated person's life was ripped apart only to be gently stitched back together through friendship, and the recovery-of many stripes-that came along the way. It explores the isolation so many of us feel despite living in an age of constant connectivity; how our ambitions sometimes pull us apart more than bring us together; and how a simple doughnut, delivered by a caring soul, can become the essence of what makes a life valuable. With gorgeous prose shot through withempathy, pain, fear, and the secret truths inside all of us, Eva writes about the friends who taught her to grow up andopen her heart-and how the relentlessness of suffering can give rise to the greatest joy.

EVA HAGBERG's writing has appeared in the New York Times, T: TheNew York Times Style Magazine, Tin House, Wallpaper*, Wired, Guernica, and Dwell, among other places. She lives in New York City.