Book excerpt: WINNER NAUTILUS AWARD - SILVER MEDAL 2018 WINNER INDEPENDENT PRESS AWARD - 2018 WINNER GOLD MEDAL - LITERARY TITAN AWARD - 2019 WINNER SILVER MEDAL - READERS FAVORITE, MEMOIR - 2019 FINALIST NEXT GEN BOOK AWARDS - 2018 BEST MEMOIR FINALIST SILVER FALCHION AWARD - 2019 FIVE STAR REVIEW FROM READERS' FAVORITE September 25, 2012 Ted Neill picked up a knife to cut his wrists open and kill himself. Post hospitalization and treatment for major depressive disorder, he wrote Two Years of Wonder, a memoir based on his journey towards recovery. In it, he examines the experience that left him with such despair: living and working for two years at an orphanage for children with HIV/AIDS in Nairobi, Kenya. Neill interweaves his story with the experiences of Oliver, Miriam, Ivy, Harmony, Tabitha, Sofie, Nea, and other children, exploring their own paths of trauma, survival, and resilience. In prose that is by turns poetic, confessional, and brutal, Neill with the children he comes alongside, strive to put the pieces of their fractured lives back together as they search for meaning and connection, each trying to reclaim their humanity and capacity to love in the face of inexplicable suffering and loss. Two Years of Wonder has been compared to Bryan Stevenson's Just Mercy, Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat Pray Love, and Brene Brown's Daring Greatly and Dare to Lead. Fan's of these authors, their vulnerability, their depth, and their focus on social issues will find that Neill's story and the story of the children he knew in Kenya,resonates.