Slow Motion

“Chilling. . . . There is a gritty honesty to her cautionary confession that will alert others to listen for and respond to wake-up calls of their own.” — New York Times Book Review

Slow Motion is the critically-lauded bestselling memoir from acclaimed novelist Dani Shapiro (Black & White, Family History) — a “riveting” and “breathtaking” look (San Francisco Chronicle), free of self-pity or regret, at a life that was rescued by an unspeakable tragedy.

At twenty-three, Dani Shapiro was in the midst of a major rebellion against her religious upbringing. She had dropped out of college, was halfheartedly acting in television commercials, and was carrying on with an older married man when her life was changed, in an instant, by a phone call. Her parents had been in a devastating car accident. Neither was expected to survive. In her first memoir, Shapiro offers this powerful true story of a life turned around—not by miracles or happy endings, but by unexpected personal catastrophe.

Author Biography

Dani Shapiro is the author of the novels Black & White and Family History and the bestselling memoir Slow Motion. Her writing has appeared in The New Yorker, Granta, Tin House, Elle, Vogue, O, and other publications.