We Are the Luckiest

The Surprising Magic of a Sober Life

Key Selling Points

Combined sales of over 72,000 copies of We Are the Luckiest in print, ebook, and audiobook.

The author started the Luckiest Club during the pandemic when sobriety groups weren’t meeting in person as a virtual alternative. It now has over 3,000 members from all over the world and features a team of 18 facilitators running 27 sobriety support meetings each week. Over 50 subgroups meet in person based on location and interest. The Luckiest Club will have its first in-person community event, LUCKYCON, in Fall 2022.

After the success of her previous podcasts Home (with Holly Whitaker) and Spiritualish, the author recently launched the podcast Tell Me Something True with executive producer Mikel
Ellcessor, the cocreator of Radiolab.

Description

“We Are the Luckiest is a masterpiece. It’s the truest, most generous, honest, and helpful sobriety memoir I’ve read. It’s going to save lives.”

— Glennon Doyle, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Love Warrior: A Memoir

What could possibly be “lucky” about addiction? Absolutely nothing, thought Laura McKowen when drinking brought her to her knees. As she puts it, she “kicked and screamed . . . wishing for something — anything — else” to be her issue. The people who got to drink normally, she thought, were so damn lucky.

But in the midst of early sobriety, when no longer able to anesthetize her pain and anxiety, she realized that she was actually the lucky one. Lucky to feel her feelings, live honestly, really be with her daughter, change her legacy. She recognized that “those of us who answer the invitation to wake up, whatever our invitation, are really the luckiest of all.”

Here, in straight-talking chapters filled with personal stories, McKowen addresses issues such as facing facts, the question of AA, and other people’s drinking. Without sugarcoating the struggles of sobriety, she relentlessly emphasizes the many blessings of an honest life, one without secrets and debilitating shame.

Review Quotes and Endorsements

“Laura McKowen’s fearless, eloquent, powerful story is an ode to living an awakened life. Yes, this is a book about getting (and staying) sober, but it’s so much more than that. It’s about embracing the beautiful messiness of being human. Readers of We Are the Luckiest are lucky indeed.”

— Dani Shapiro, New York Times bestselling author of Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

“Heartbreakingly candid and brave, Laura McKowen takes us on an unflinching journey of what it means to get sober. We Are the Luckiest explores what it means to reclaim one’s life — and more. An unforgettable, soulful read.”

— Ann Dowsett Johnston, author of Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol

“Vulnerability sounds great in theory and is hard as hell in practice. Laura McKowen writes with grace and wisdom — but also with huge vulnerability. By telling her story with raw, unflinching honesty, she invites us to look at our own stories with new compassion.”

— Claire Dederer, bestselling author of Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses and Love and Trouble: A Midlife Reckoning

“A candid exploration of the challenges and joys of sobriety, both getting there and staying there. [McKowen] is a frank and vulnerable excavator of the mess that accumulates in all our lives, not just those who struggle with drink or drugs, and she reminds us that addictions can take many different forms.”

— Boston Globe

“This brilliant work of writing may hit closer to home than you’d expect.”

— Parade

“Timely, defiant, and beautifully written. . . . Imbued with emotional honesty and hope, We Are the Luckiest urges a gentle curiosity and self-compassion for even our darkest places.”

— Mindful

“Laura speaks to that place within us where what breaks our heart becomes our highest learning and our most invaluable currency.”

— Elena Brower, bestselling author of Practice You

“Raw, deep, and hopeful.”

— Foreword

“Laura McKowen is a stunning writer, and this book is a gift for everyone: the newly sober, those with longtime sobriety, those for whom the sands are beginning to shift, and those who simply aren’t sure where they stand. This is beautiful, revelatory writing filled with grace and awareness about what it means to be a complicated human being living in a complicated world, and not only surviving but thriving. It will be a blessing for everyone who reads it.”

— Elissa Altman, author of Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing

“Affecting, heartfelt . . . McKowen’s moving story will be a boon to those seeking help with addiction.”

— Publishers Weekly

“In a voice both direct and kind, Laura McKowen shines a shame-erasing light on her history of addiction and illuminates the lucky life she found in its wake. Through personal stories and practical advice, she offers readers a path to the other side of their own struggles — and more importantly, she illustrates with eloquence and vividness why that path is more than worth the effort. As a person in long-term sobriety, even I found inspiration and useful tips in this warm, compassionate book.”

— Kristi Coulter, author of Nothing Good Can Come from This

“McKowen’s narrative serves to inspire and uplift.”

— Library Journal

“ We Are the Luckiest is a hope-inducing dose of narrative medicine for those who fear that life ends after drinking does. Like a long, honest conversation with a very good friend, Laura’s story is a gift to anyone starting out on that scary, lucky path.”

— Melissa Febos, author of Whip Smart and Abandon Me

“ We Are the Luckiest is ultimately about the wild and holy effort of trying to face this great big unsayable love inside us without numbing ourselves from its blazing truth or distancing ourselves from the fact that it’s here with us, whether we ever believe we’re worthy of it or not. Laura McKowen’s words are drenched with proof of the existence of this unsayable love, and with hope that it’s never too late for any of us to begin to say yes to a life that’s courageously present to it.”

— Meggan Watterson, Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Mary Magdalene Revealed

“Inspiring, sincere, and full of heart.”

— Shelf Awareness