Each essay here captures a piece of Polley's life as she remembers it, while at the same time examining the fallibility of memory and the embodied reactions of children and women adapting and surviving. The guiding light is the possibility of experiencing the past anew, as the person she is now. In this extraordinary book, Polley explores what it is to live in one's body, in a constant state of becoming, learning, and changing. As she was advised after a catastrophic injury to her head - if we relinquish our protective crouch and run towards the danger, then life can be reset, reshaped and lived afresh.