⋙ Download Free The Girls at 17 Swann Street A Novel Yara Zgheib 9781250202444 Books

The Girls at 17 Swann Street A Novel Yara Zgheib 9781250202444 Books

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The Girls at 17 Swann Street A Novel Yara Zgheib 9781250202444 Books

How can a story about something so heavy feel so beautiful? Yara is not only a gifted writer, she is one of those rare authors that can so perfectly capture moments, people and emotions. Her characters are so well developed and it felt effortless and genuine. Everyone knows about eating disorders and the struggles people go through but this was like looking straight into a persons mind and seeing their pain. I loved every character, I loved the progression and end of this story. This will probably be my favorite book of 2019.


Tags : The Girls at 17 Swann Street: A Novel [Yara Zgheib] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <b>*A BookMovement Group Read*</b> <b>**A People</i> Pick for Best New Books**</b> <b></b> <b>Yara Zgheib’s poetic and poignant debut novel is a haunting portrait of a young woman’s struggle with anorexia on an intimate journey to reclaim her life. </b> <b></b> <b></b> The chocolate went first,Yara Zgheib,The Girls at 17 Swann Street: A Novel,St. Martin's Press,1250202442,Anorexia nervosa,Ballet dancers;Fiction.,Dancers,Depression, Mental,Eating disorders;Fiction.,Failure (Psychology),Missouri,Psychological fiction,Psychological fiction.,060101 St Martins Trade Fiction,AMERICAN CONTEMPORARY FICTION,FICTION Family Life General,FICTION Psychological,FICTION Women,Family Life General,Fiction,FictionFamily Life - General,FictionPsychological,GENERAL,General Adult,Multicultural,Psychological,United States,Women's Studies,Anorexia; Bulimia; Eating disorders; Addiction; Binge eating; binging; Body image; Dysfunctional eating; Emotional eating; psychological fiction; womens fiction; literary fiction; contemporary fiction; books about friendship; friendship fiction; female friendship; depression fiction; dieting fiction; mental health fiction; mental illness fiction; women authors; women writers; seventeen swann street; 17 swan street; 17 swann st.; middle eastern authors; middle eastern writers; lebanese fiction; yara zagheib; yara zghieb,womens fiction; literary fiction; contemporary fiction; books about friendship; friendship fiction; female friendship; anorexia; bulimia; eating disorders; addiction; binge eating; binging; depression fiction; body image; dysfunctional eating; emotional eating; dieting fiction; psychological fiction; mental health fiction; mental illness fiction; women authors; women writers; seventeen swann street; 17 swan street; 17 swann st.; middle eastern authors; middle eastern writers; lebanese fiction; yara zagheib; yara zghieb

The Girls at 17 Swann Street A Novel Yara Zgheib 9781250202444 Books Reviews

Anna has moved into bedroom # 5 at 17 Swaan Street which is an eating disorder center for women. Anna had been a dancer. Anna has books to read, places to see, babies to make, birthday cakes to taste. Anna even has unused birthday wishes to spare, Anna is twenty six -married to Matthais for three years-but her body feels like she is sixty two. So does her brain. Both are tired, irritable, and in pain. Anna doesn’t laugh much anymore. Very little is funny. Anna has anorexia. Anna is five foot four and weights eighty eight pounds. Anna’s basic problem - loss of interest in food. Loss of interest in general. Anna feels she doesn’t suffer from anorexia, she has anorexia. She knows her anorexia. Anna understands it better than the world around her. The world around her is obese at least half of it. Anna’s anorexia keeps her company since her husband works so much and they left France when he got a chance at a job in the states. Anna can control her anorexia, so she chooses it. Anna runs eighty minutes a day, builds strength for another twenty minutes. Anna keeps her caloric intake below eight hundred calories , a thousand when she in binging. Anna weights herself every morning and cries at the numbers on the scale. She cries in front of mirrors and sees fat everywhere. Everyone around Anna seems to think she has a problem. She just had to lose a little weight. She does not suffer from a sick brain. Anna suffers from a sick heart. Her husband finally tells Anna he tried to ignore she has a problem and brings her to this place. He tells Anna it's because he doesn’t want to live without her. She is his wife and he loves her. He walks into the place with her instead of having her walk in alone as she suggested. Anna is told the rules she must now follow. Anna is told she should always communicate her thoughts and feelings freely. Staff is there to validate those and redirect her behavior and by the end of treatment Anna will be cured of her eating disorder. Anna’s therapist is Katherine and she tells Katherine she does not need this session Anna said she came from a ;loving family and has a husband she adores that she sleeps with every night. No depression or trauma, at least that Anna needs or is inclined to share. No unhealed wounds from her past or skeletons in Anna’s closet that she needs to address. Anna says she is just particular about what she eats, just a little underweight. There are seven young women in the center right now. Five including Anna are anorexic , two have bulimia. Not hard to spot, they look pubescent and gaunt. Sunken eyes, and sunken faces, scarecrow thin eyes and legs, pale skin and hair, no lips. The patients aren’t women. They are missing breasts, curves, probably periods. Most are wearing children’s clothes. They look androgynous, their skin hanging in loose pockets around fragile frames. Real women have bodies, sex, lives, dinner, and families. Anna soon learns at the center most questions are really instructions in sweetened buttered disguises. Anna also learned three times refusing food meant a feeding tube. Anna remembers she had been her younger brother Camil’s protector until one day she wasn’t good enough and at seven he died from being hit by a car. Anna still had a box of camil’s childish drawings and his little white bear upstairs in bedroom number 5 under her bed. Her mother choose to end her life in their bathroom and join her son. Her father and her sister Sophia refused to speak of Camil. Anna found she forgot things as her anorexia went on but then felt what she could not remember she would not miss. One evening while visiting Matthias gets angry and asks Anna why he wasn’t enough for her to eat like she does in treatment. Anna replied you brought me here, you saved my life. She wonders if and when Matthias will stop coming to visit. Eventually Anna tells Matthias to stop coming to visit. She is finally giving up . She also refuses three meals and gets a feeding tube than she refuses to get out of bed. The next night Emm comes to Anna’s room the next morning and forces Anna to get up and not give up and to make things right with Matthias as she was cruelly hurting him now.
I loved the reality of this book. It felt like you get to see the disease of anorexia up close and personal. It felt like I really got to see the disease of anorexia as well as bulimia in real ways. What it was like to have this disease. To fight and try to win, knowing this fight would be for the rest of their lives. Also few relatively win and are cured of this horrific disease. Such a harrowing book but I was glad I read it. I loved Matthias and his love and dedication and loyalty to Anna. Yet also showed his bewilderment and his anger. I loved Anna’s father came across the ocean to the US to spend one evening with Anna. All I can say if you want to know the personal details of anorexia for the people suffering from this disease as wella s the ones who love these people read this in all it’s heartbreak, fear, struggle, fight yet times of joy and happiness. It is a harrowing read for the most part but so worth it. I highly recommend this book.
I would urge any serious reader to purchase this book.
It is not an easy read; but, it is an informative, compassionate, simply beautifully written account of young women fighting to overcome their eating disorders and find their” Angle Of Repose “ in their lives .

Those of you familiar with Ms. Yara’s weekly blog” Aristotle And Tea” will recognize her beautiful prose and compassionate soul.
The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a an honest, unflinching, but fundamental hopeful portrayal of anorexia and the struggles of recovery. Anna enters treatment at the beginning of the novel primarily at the behest of her husband, who is at the end of his rope and fearful that he wouldn't be able to keep her alive on his own. She is resistant to the idea of treatment at that time, filled up with fear and denial.

Zgheib explores the triggering events that led up to Anna's situation, from her demanding background in ballet to her sense of isolation as an immigrant in America. Anna's background felt like one of the biggest strengths of this novel. There is no single factor which led to her developing an eating disorder; the reasons are myriad and the descent was gradual. As is often the case in real life, compounding traumas and pressures slowly built up to a mental health crisis, and it's difficult to say how Anna would have fared if even one of these factors had been different. 

Zgheib seems to take pains to lend a sense of realism to Anna's recovery efforts throughout the novel. Progress is treated with caution, as relapse is very common with anorexia, but the overall tone does not come across as pessimistic. The reader sees Anna's mindset change slowly but drastically, spurred in part by a desire to reconnect with family members who have grown distant during her decline and in part through fear of ending up like some of the other girls she encounters in treatment. 

There is nothing remarkably original or unique in the telling of this story; a woman hits rock bottom, enters treatment for anorexia, falters and makes slow progress, and the story ends on a hopeful but still somewhat ambiguous note. If you've read a lot of novels about mental health, the structure will feel very familiar, but Zgheib's writing style is engaging and it feels very easy to connect with Anna. The Girls at 17 Swann Street is a rewarding and poignant read, and I look forward to seeing what this author writes in the future.

My thanks to the publisher for providing an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.
I had a hard time reading this because it is so hard to live even in a book with such a sickness. My sister told me she was anorexic when she was in her 20s. I was also in my 20s at the time, and I am sorry to say I didn't take it very seriously. I was amazed when she described how much of her day was consumed by food deciding what to eat and what not to eat. My sister is doing okay now. I know many others are not.
How can a story about something so heavy feel so beautiful? Yara is not only a gifted writer, she is one of those rare authors that can so perfectly capture moments, people and emotions. Her characters are so well developed and it felt effortless and genuine. Everyone knows about eating disorders and the struggles people go through but this was like looking straight into a persons mind and seeing their pain. I loved every character, I loved the progression and end of this story. This will probably be my favorite book of 2019.