The Rules Do Not Apply. A Memoir

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER .  "This Year's Must-Read Memoir" (W magazine) about the choices a young woman makes in her search for adventure, meaning, and love NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Vogue . Time . Esquire . Entertainment Weekly . The Guardian . Harper's Bazaar . Library Journal . NPR  All her life, Ariel Levy was told that she was too fervent, too forceful, too much. As a young woman, she decided that becoming a writer would perfectly channel her strength and desire.
She would be a professional explorer-"the kind of woman who is free to do whatever she chooses." Levy moved to Manhattan to pursue her dream, and spent years of adventure, traveling all over the world writing stories about unconventional heroines, following their fearless examples in her own life. But when she experiences unthinkable heartbreak, Levy is forced to surrender her illusion of control.
In telling her story, Levy has captured a portrait of our time, of the shifting forces in American culture, of what has changed and what has remained. And of how to begin again. Praise for The Rules Do Not Apply"Unflinching and intimate, wrenching and revelatory, Ariel Levy's powerful memoir about love, loss, and finding one's way shimmers with truth and heart on every page."-Cheryl Strayed"Every deep feeling a human is capable of will be shaken loose by this profound book.
Ariel Levy has taken grief and made art out of it."-David Sedaris "Beautifully crafted .