BOOK: YOUR SECOND LIFE BEGINS WHEN YOU REALISE YOU ONLY HAVE ONE by Raphaëlle Giordano

Shane | 19 October 2018 | Reply

BOOK: YOUR SECOND LIFE BEGINS WHEN YOU REALISE YOU ONLY HAVE ONE by Raphaëlle Giordano

Penguin Random House
July 2018
Hardcover, $29.99
Reviewed by Shane Pinnegar

Self-help/ Fiction
10/10

In the spirit of Sophie’s World, The Alchemist and other novelised self-help books comes Raphaëlle Giordano’s wonderful Your Second Life Begins When you Realise You Only Have One.

Camille finds herself in a broken down car in the rain on a Friday evening in the back roads of Paris, hyper-tense and upset and almost as upset about going home to her unfulfilling life as she is to be delayed without help in the middle of nowhere.

Seeking assistance she stumbles upon the home of Claude, who organises help for her, and whilst waiting he astutely realises she is unhappy within herself, and offers her some help.

Claude is a ‘routinologist’, he explains, and will set her a series of tasks designed to help her break out of the unhappy ruts her life has found itself in. The book then follows Camille’s journey as she slowly begins to take ownership for everything in her life she is unhappy with, and to start making changes for the better.

Giordano’s triumph is in understanding that change can only come from within, that it needs tie and nurturing to take root and grow, and that we must own our unhappiness before we can transform it like a caterpillar into a butterfly. It is doable though – always. And it is always hard work. The truth is that most of us will not want to make all the confronting changes – guided or unguided – necessary to fulfil ourselves to the maximum possible.

Your Second Life Begins… is a joy to read – as two million Europeans have already discovered! And whilst reading it’s impossible not to feel moved by Camille’s journey, and to start subconsciously adopting a change in one’s own attitude for the better.

I can’t recommend the book enough if you feel your life is at a crossroads, or if you are lacking the self-confidence to make some dramatic and scary life changes. I’m sitting down with the book for a second read next week, and this time I’ll be taking notes.