'The first lesson reading teaches is how to be alone'

The Year of Magical Thinking: A Play by Joan Didion based on her Memoir Paperback

The Year of Magical Thinking: A Play by Joan Didion based on her Memoir

Joan Didion and David Hare

‘This happened on December 30, 2003. That may seem a while ago but it won’t when it happens to you…’

In this adaptation of her award-winning, bestselling memoir, Joan Didion transforms the story of the sudden and unexpected loss of her husband and their only daughter into a stunning and powerful one-woman play.

The first production of ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’, starring Vanessa Redgrave and directed by David Hare, was a runaway hit on Broadway in 2007. The same production is transferring to the National Theatre from April to July 2008.

Reviews of The Year of Magical Thinking: A Play by Joan Didion based on her Memoir

    • Reviews for the memoir:
    • ‘It is the most awesome performance of both participating in, and watching, an event. Even though Didion does not allow herself to break down, only a terribly controlled reader will resist doing the same.’ Independent
    • ‘Ultimately, and unexpectedly for a book about illness and death, this is a wonderfully life affirming book.’ Observer
    • ‘Searing, informative and affecting. Don’t leave life without it.’ Financial Times
    • ‘This is a beautiful and devastating book by one of the finest writers we have. Didion has always been a precise, humane and meticulously truthful writer, but on the subject of death she becomes essential.’ Zadie Smith
    • ‘Taking the reader to places where they would not otherwise go is one of the things a really good book can do. “The Year of Magical Thinking” does just that, and brilliantly. Powerful, moving and true.’ Spectator
    • ‘A great book, a great work. Angular, exact, pressured and tough, precise as a diamond drill bit.’ Nick Laird

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