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Smile: The Story of a Face

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Smile: The Story of a Face

With a play opening on Broadway, and every reason to smile, Sarah Ruhl has just survived a high-risk pregnancy when she discovers the left side of her face is completely paralyzed. She is assured that 90 percent of Bell’s palsy patients see spontaneous improvement and experience a full recovery. Like Ruhl’s own mother. But Sarah is in the unlucky 10 percent. And for a woman, wife, mother and artist working in theater, the paralysis and the disconnect between the interior and exterior bring significant and specific challenges. So Ruhl begins an intense decade-long search for a cure while simultaneously grappling with the reality of her new face --- one that, while recognizably her own, is incapable of accurately communicating feelings or intentions.

Smile: A Memoir
by Sarah Ruhl

  • Publication Date: September 27, 2022
  • Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction
  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Scribner/Marysue Rucci Books
  • ISBN-10: 1982150955
  • ISBN-13: 9781982150952