An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination: A Memoir

One of the Best Books of the Year: USA Today , NPR's Fresh Air , San Francisco Chronicle , Publishers Weekly , San Diego Tribune , Arizona Republic , Hartford Courant

"Like Joan Didion's The Year of Magical Thinking , this book is a powerful and defiant memoir of grief." — Arizona Republic

In this flush of unexpected love, newly married, the prizewinning novelist Elizabeth McCracken finds herself in a remote part of France, waiting for the birth of her first child.

This book is about what happens next. In the ninth month of her pregnancy, a baby is lost. Just over a year later, a baby is born. In a profoundly moving display of humor, wisdom, and unfailing generosity, McCracken tenderly presents her story.

It is a story of true love and unfathomable sadness. It is a story of courageous recovery and bittersweet moments. It is a story about the importance of friendship. It is a story about happiness, and about hope. Elizabeth McCracken opens her heart, and leaves all of ours richer for it.

"Gorgeously loving. . . . McCracken's story of loss reads like a celebration of life." — Entertainment Weekly

"This is an intimate book. . . . It is also a wildly important book." — Los Angeles Times

"Reading it is a mysteriously enlarging experience."― Time

"By the end of this memoir you will have held a beautiful child in your hands and you will have acknowledged him. This book is an extraordinary gift to us all."―Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones and The Almost Moon