Being Ana - by Shani Raviv (Paperback)

About the Book

In this fast-paced coming-of-age story, Shani Raviv, a misfit teen, survives ten years of anorexia nervosa--an illness with one of the highest death rates of any psychiatric disorder--and proves, against all odds, that there is life at the end of the thin tunnel.

Book Synopsis

Shani Raviv is a misfit teen whose peer-pressured diet spirals down into full-blown anorexia nervosa--something no one in her early-nineties, local South African community knows anything about. Fourteen-year-old Shani spends the next six years being "Ana" (as many anorexics call it), on the run from her feelings. She goes from aerobics addict to Israeli soldier to rave bunny to wannabe reborn, using sex, drugs, exercise and, above all, starvation, to numb out everything along the way. But one night, at age twenty, Shani faces the rude awakening that if she doesn't slow down, break her denial, and seek help, she will starve to death. Three years later, her hardest journey of all begins: the journey to let go of being Ana and learn to love herself. Being Ana is an exploration into the soul and psyche of a young woman wrestling with anorexia's demons--one that not only exposes the real horrors of a day in the life of an anorexic girl but also reveals the courage it takes to stop fighting and find healing.

Review Quotes

"A fascinating window into the frightening and relentless world of anorexia and, equally, young womanhood." --Katherine Boyle, Veritas Literary Agency

"Ms. Raviv is a fabulous writer and did an amazing job of simultaneously showing how her eating disorder functioned to keep her from being conscious of the underlying issues while in the depths of it, and showing the reader how all of her behaviors, thoughts and feelings were directly related to those underlying issues." --Susie Roman, MA, Director of Programs, National Eating Disorders Association

"Shani's openness and clarity in sharing her experience with anorexia gave my students a unique opportunity to gain empathy and understanding for the living of an eating disorder. I know it will make them better therapists." --Dr. John Deninno, clinical psychologist and eating disorder elective instructor, Bastyr University

"Shani Raviv is a great inspiration to the many millions out there struggling with eating disorders. Her book Being Ana is honest, sensitive, witty, brutal, and so much more." --Graham Alexander, MA (Clin.Psych.)(UCT), Director of Crescent Clinic Eating Disorders Unit

"Being Ana is not only an insightful, raw, and thought-provoking memoir detailing a subject most people know little about, it is also a work by an author who understands how to present a difficult subject with humor and aplomb. Even though the book took her eight years to complete, there is an aching immediacy within these pages." --Leighanne Law, Elliott Bay Book Co.