Preview
  • Surviving in Spirit

  • A Memoir about Sisterhood and Addiction
  • By: Mélanie Berliet
  • Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
  • Length: 1 hr and 52 mins
  • 4.0 out of 5 stars (176 ratings)

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Surviving in Spirit

By: Mélanie Berliet
Narrated by: Dina Pearlman
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $2.99

Buy for $2.99

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's summary

What prompts a young woman to abandon the safe bounds of convention for the unknown?

At first, all Mélanie Berliet understood was that she'd lost her sense of what "supposed to" meant. And that her older sister, Céline, was sick.

While it's tough to understand what leads a person into addiction - to witness someone you love kind-of kill herself - the truth is that you can learn from it. By the time Céline died at age 30, she was Kermit The Frog green and she vomited blood more frequently than she was able to eat. In less than a decade, she had gone from summa cum laude Columbia graduate to NYU PhD student to unemployed, rambling, stumbling drunk saddled with a cirrhotic liver beyond repair. By the time Céline died, her younger sister, Mélanie, was no longer a Miss Goody Two Shoes from a waspy Connecticut suburb trotting down the sensible path. She was an adult who had abandoned a secure job on Wall Street to establish a career as a writer committed to exploring fascinating subcultures.

As Céline's illness escalated, you see, a basic lesson crept up on Mlanie: Life is beautifully short, and fragile as hell. Life happens. Gradually, Mélanie stopped agonizing over what she was supposed to do/think/know/read/listen to/watch/feel, or who she was supposed to be/befriend/love/like/learn from. So she pitched projects that sounded crazy and/or dangerous to most, but which gave her a thrill and helped her establish a career as an immersive journalist. She grew some balls, so to speak, after freeing herself from caring about what others might think.

The devastating beauty of what happened to Céline forced Mélanie to question who she is. However unwittingly, in dying, Céline empowered her younger sister to take risks - to live. This is their story.

©2014 Mélanie Berliet (P)2014 Audible Inc.
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about Surviving in Spirit

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    85
  • 4 Stars
    36
  • 3 Stars
    28
  • 2 Stars
    18
  • 1 Stars
    9
Performance
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    78
  • 4 Stars
    35
  • 3 Stars
    19
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    11
Story
  • 4 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    87
  • 4 Stars
    23
  • 3 Stars
    23
  • 2 Stars
    16
  • 1 Stars
    9

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Life is short

Story was too short...what was the point. What happened to her own life?? Should of been a lil longer.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wow

Let me reiterate, WOW! I'm trying to think of something else to say, perhaps a more clear reaction, but no other word comes to mind. What love, what emotion, what truth of life...and death! This memoir is well worth the read...or in this case, the listen

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderfully written story about life and loss

i liked the frankness of this memoir, as well as the thoughtful descriptions of life used throughout. This story will resonate with anyone who has a strong sense of humor while simultaneously facing an unexpected·loss.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Not what I expected…. But we’ll done

Just a preceptive view on Addiction. I loved hearing her take on it keep up the good work

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

well written

This author writes well! She makes words sing despite the subject matter. The love for her sister shines through.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Very Engaging and Blunt out of Necessity

I really liked this. Great narration. Very sad story, but some things need to be blunt. No sugarcoating. Very impressed with the author's ability to describe her experience. The nice front picture photo gives me the feeling that she's now happily married with 2 adorable kids. I hope so. Thank you.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    2 out of 5 stars

Overpriced—and it was free.

I don’t know what was worse—the writing or the narrating. I couldn’t listen to more than 20 minutes as the prose was so sophomoric and the narration so creepy/weird. Ugh.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Slow and pointless

I’m sorry but this was so boring I had to push to get through it. I feel like it had no point to the book. It should have dug deeper so there would have been an actual story line.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

great

super writing and narration. funny and sad. thought provoking. I will read this author again.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fantastic Potential

I can definitely say I love the story in the sense that it feels like a nice teaser. there's so much more the reader is missing I think this story needs to be expanded into a fuller book. What was her reasoning for drinking? The layout was a bit confusing as there was no clear timeline. If the author came out with an extended detailed story I'd be willing to give it a try.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!