Elizabeth Gilbert’s New Memoir All the Way to the River Explores ‘Darker Side of Spiritual, Emotional and Physical Hunger’ (Exclusive)

Elizabeth Gilbert has returned with an emotionally-fueled new memoir.

PEOPLE can exclusively share that the Eat, Pray, Love author will publish a new memoir, All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation this fall through Riverhead Books.

The memoir follows Gilbert’s relationship with her late partner Rayya Elias, who the author met in 2000. Rayya, an artist-turned-hairdresser, and Gilbert, a writer and self-proclaimed people-pleaser at the time, were complete opposites at first, but soon formed an unbreakable bond. When tragedy struck, the two — both unacknowledged addicts — found themselves on a collision course with catastrophe.

“I am writing for people who are seekers, people who are hungry, people who are restless, people who, perhaps, since earliest childhood have felt that there absolutely has to be a higher meaning to life than what we have been shown,” says Gilbert in a statement shared with PEOPLE.

“This book is about the darker side of that spiritual, emotional and physical hunger — in its more extreme forms known as addiction — and how lost we can become in the endless search for connection and satisfaction,” the author continues. “And it is about the pathway out of that desperation, through a return to a more nourishing way of life.”

For Gilbert, bestselling author of books like the creativity guide Big Magic and novel City of Girls, All the Way to the River, which takes its title from an inside joke with Rayya, has been a long time in the making — seven years, in fact.

“Rayya always said that I was her ‘all the way to the river’ friend, and I always felt that she was mine,” Gilbert explains. “When she found out she was dying of cancer, we started calling her impending death ‘the river’ — and I made a promise that I would walk all the way to that river with her. But walking all the way to the river with someone is not always an easy journey — and that, ultimately, is what this story is about.”

“I have actually been trying to write a book about Rayya since the day she died, back in January 2018,” the author continues. “I think it took me so long to tell our story because it took years of therapy, grief, confusion, recovery and sobriety for me to even be able to understand all that had happened between us, and why.”

“And while it was often harrowing to go back and relive that story — especially the forensic dive back down into the more chaotic and devastating parts of our journey — it was, in the end, incredibly healing to be able to come to peace with the past, and to feel that Rayya (who loved the truth more than anything) would have approved of this narrative, too.”

The author also acknowledges the vulnerability that came with sharing the intimate story of her and Rayya’s relationship in the memoir.

“I never in a million years wanted my love story with Rayya to get as dark and dangerous and heartbreaking as it became,” Gilbert says. “And yet without that shattering pain, I would never have had the spiritual awakening that awaited me on the other side of my surrender — and that, ultimately, is what this book is about.”

The writing of the book was a journey, just like Gilbert hopes the reading of it will be.

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“There was so much that I needed to sort out and understand — not only about that particular love story, but about all my relationships, and why I can get so lost in them,” the author says. “I’m so proud of this book, and I’m excited to share it with readers all over the world, who, I hope, will find a sense of recognition, awakening and liberation within these pages.”

All the Way to the River: Love, Loss, and Liberation will be published on Sept. 9, 2025 and is now available for preorder, wherever books are sold.