My Beautiful Detour: An Unthinkable Journey From Gutless to Grateful

Written by Amy Oestreicher

Narrated by Amy Oestreicher

What happens when an ordinary teenager has to turn into a warrior just to survive? And can the journey through Post Traumatic Stress Disorder really become an “adventure?” Amy had ambitious plans for college and Broadway, until her stomach exploded the week before her senior prom. Months later, she awoke from a coma to learn that she's never eat or drink again. After 28 surgeries and seven years on IV nutrition, her digestive system was miraculously reconstructed and her first bite of food awakened her senses to life's wonder. Yet now, Amy was suddenly faced with memories of being sexually abused by a trusted mentor for months, just before the unexpected rush to the emergency room that fateful Passover night. With determination, imagination, relentless resilience, and an inner “hunger” for life, Amy created a roadmap where none existed. Her journey through life's unthinkable detours is miraculous, but the creative path to healing she forged is accessible to anyone - a celebration of ordinary and extraordinary challenges and miracles. How can you cope for years without even an ice cube to nourish your thirst for knowledge, or a breadcrumb to fuel an insatiable hunger for life? Amy found many ways, and in this book, she shares her many twists and turns, setbacks and triumphs, obstacles, and opportunities. In between, her humorous adventures from graduating high school in the surgical ICU, breaking out of the hospital to go to the mall, and flourishing as a visual artist through the unexpected discovery of a paintbrush during a year-long hospital stay.  In a coming of age story, Amy shares her struggles and discoveries living with both visible and invisible illness, gifts reaped from trauma, lessons which illuminated her path, and we can find unique, yet universal ways to navigate any kind of uncertainty. The audiobook includes Amy's original songs, readings by her family, and a special afterword by Tony Award Winning composer William Finn.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Singing Tree Publishers
• Release date: Dec 29, 2020
• ISBN: 9781662297731

Amy Oestreicher

Amy Oestreicher is a multidisciplinary creator who overcame a decade of trauma to become a sought-after teaching artist, author, international keynote speaker, RAINN representative, PTSD specialist, and advocate for people with disabilities. She dedicates her work to celebrating untold stories and the detours in life that can spark connections and transform communities, and has given three TEDx Talks on transforming trauma through creativity, which have garnered tens of thousands of views, and shared her story on networks such as NBC (The Today Show), CBS, MSNBC, and ABC, and in more than seventy publications on the arts and community transformation. As a visual artist, Amy's multimedia creations have been showcased in galleries in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Chicago, San Diego, and New York. As a playwright, she has received several awards and accolades, including Women Around Town’s “Women to Celebrate” 2014, BroadwayWorld’s “Best Theatre Debut,” Bistro Awards’s “New York Top Pick,” and the “Singular Award” at the Sarasolo Theatre Festival. Her one-woman autobiographical musical Gutless & Grateful has toured over two hundred venues since its debut in 2012. She is also an Audie award-nominated playwright and her plays have been used by a wealth of theater companies and performed across the country by students for immigration festivals, academic projects, and during Sexual Assault Prevention Month. Her writing has been published in the Washington Post,, Glamour, Seventeen magazine, and the Huffington Post, and her story has been covered in the Daily Mail, and her memoir, My Beautiful Detour: An Unthinkable Journey from Gutless to Grateful, was published in 2019. Amy is also the founder of the campaign “LoveMyDetour,” which is used for seminars, workshops, curriculum, books, music, and performances, is part of the National Initiative for Arts and Health in the Military, and is currently a candidate for a Master of Fine Arts degree from Goddard College. Her website is www.amyoes.com. She lives in Westport, Connecticut.