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Amy Oestreicher
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My Beautiful Detour: An Unthinkable Journey from Gutless to Grateful Paperback – May 29, 2019

by Amy Oestreicher (Author)
5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 19 ratings
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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 a Broadway career, until her stomach exploded the week before her senior prom. Months later, she awoke from a coma to learn that she might never be able to 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 ordinary miracles. 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 nothing short of miraculous, but the creative path to healing she forged is accessible to anyone.


As a survivor—and “thriver”—of abuse and extensive medical trauma, Amy discovered sources of resilience she didn’t know she had but it turns out we all possess. In this book, she creates a tapestry made from each of each thread of her journey, empowering others to find gratitude in every setback and discover their own infinite inner strength. Amy’s search for “home” proves to be the greatest test of cultivating resilience after near-death, and reclaiming identity after both sexual assault and medical trauma. Amy’s journey is ultimately 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 your insatiable hunger for life? Amy found many ways, and in this book, she shares her many twists and turns, setbacks and triumphs, obstacles, and ultimately, opportunities. And 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 mixed media artist through the unexpected discovery of a paintbrush during a year-long hospital stay.

In this coming of age story, Amy shares her struggles and discoveries living with both visible and invisible illness, the tremendous gifts to be reaped from trauma, its lessons which have illuminated her path, and how these gifts can be discovered as a unique, yet universal way to navigate any kind of uncertainty.

Now with an afterward written by Tony-Award winning composer and lyricist William Finn.
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  1. Print length
    513 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publication date
    May 29, 2019
  4. Dimensions
    6 x 1.29 x 9 inches
  5. ISBN-10
    1733138811
  6. ISBN-13
    978-1733138819
  7. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Singing Tree Publishing (May 29, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 513 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1733138811
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1733138819
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.65 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.29 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    5.0 5.0 out of 5 stars 19 ratings

About the author

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Amy Oestreicher

Amy Oestreicher

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Amy Oestreicher is an Audie Award-nominated author, writer for The Huffington Post, speaker for TEDx and RAINN, health advocate, award-winning actress, mixed media artist, songwriter and playwright. As a survivor and “thriver” of multiple traumas, Amy eagerly shares the gifts of life’s “beautiful detours” and the tremendous gifts that can be reaped from adversity. She has toured “Gutless & Grateful,” her original one-woman musical autobiography, since its NYC debut in 2012, to conferences, theatres, colleges, and organizations nationwide, winning seven national awards. Amy has headlined international conferences on leadership, entrepreneurship, women’s rights, mental health, disability, creativity, and domestic violence prevention. She is a SheSource Expert, a “Top Mental Health” writer for Medium, and a regular lifestyle, wellness, and arts contributor for over 70 notable online and print publications, and and her story has appeared on NBC’s TODAY, CBS, Cosmopolitan, Seventeen Magazine, Washington Post, Good Housekeeping, MSNBC, among others.

Amy has delivered three TEDx talks on transforming trauma to Creative Growth, As a playwright, recent works include "More Than Ever Now," inspired by oral histories transcribed from three generations of survivors, and the multimedia musical, "Passageways: Songs of Connection, Abnormal & Sublime."

To celebrate her own “beautiful detour”, Amy created the #LoveMyDetour campaign, to help others cope in the face of unexpected events. Her passion for inclusion, equity and amplifying marginalized voices has earned her various honors, including a scholarship from the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor Professionals, the first annual SHERocks HERstory National Performing Artist Honoree, a United Way Community Helper award, and a National Sexual Education Grant honor. To creatively engage student advocacy efforts, Amy developed a trauma-informed program combining mental health education, sexual assault prevention, and Broadway Theatre for college campuses, organizations and conferences. She has designed a creative curriculum for “Detourist Resiliency,” an outreach program taken to schools, hospitals, and at-risk youth. As a PTSD Specialist and multidisciplinary teaching artist, Amy is committed to honoring the arts as an integral part of education, self-empowerment and community.

Learn more at www.amyoes.com.

Customer reviews

5 out of 5 stars
5 out of 5
19 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Stephan Neff, My Steps To Sobriety
5.0 out of 5 stars Shockingly beautiful
Reviewed in the United States on September 28, 2020
Verified Purchase
I have read "Beautiful detour" cover to cover and am at a loss for words. As a doctor I can very much see how close to death Amy found herself, again and again. As a man and cook I love my food. To imagine being unable to eat for years without end and at times only barely remaining alive with the help of parenteral nutrition - what a fate. To read about Amy's betrayal by a father figure who should have protected and nourished this passionate and artistic teenager makes me sick to the stomach (pun kind of intended). Many a times over throughout reading this book I marveled at the tenacity Amy showed. The tips and tricks her mind came up with to deal with often apparently hopeless times in her life. And to see Amy nowadays embracing her life to the fullest is one of the most beautiful transformations imaginable. A very beautiful book that made me look at my own life in a different way. A must-read.
One person found this helpful
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Kristin Fehrman
5.0 out of 5 stars Amy's courage and story is something you'll never hear again
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2020
Verified Purchase
You have never met anyone like Amy-

I promise.

Vibrant and cheerful, optimistic and mystical, Amy Oestriecher has been through the unthinkable. How can someone continue to smile after everything she has been through? How can someone see humor in their hunger?

It takes a special human to have the courage to stand on stage and sing about her struggles- solo- something I have never heard before. Amy's life challenges weren't first world problems or annoyances; they were real, medical mysteries and the pure devastation of losing one's innocence and joy.

None of this stopped Amy from creating, exploring, learning, and loving life. This is a must-read for anyone- especially people who don't believe in the unthinkable.
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Rebecca Kasdon
5.0 out of 5 stars A compelling story not to be missed!
Reviewed in the United States on September 5, 2019
Verified Purchase
Amy describes an incredible journey with vivid details and emotion. The things she experienced, both medical trauma and abuse, would be enough for someone else to just simply give up, or forever rally at the unfairness of life. Amy’s story chronicles and shows us that there is a path to happiness and acceptance. Whether you have been through trauma or not, this is a powerful book that will make you think about how you view adversity and all of life’s “detours”.
2 people found this helpful
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linda goldfinger
5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkable True Story of Amy's Survival Journey
Reviewed in the United States on July 26, 2019
Verified Purchase
It's unreal that Amy already accomplished more in her young life than most people ever do. And this is in spite of her many traumatic experiences. Amy's successful survival journey bears testament to the power of the support and selfless love of her entire family. This book is empowering, because if Amy can get through her trauma, there's little that one can't get through.
2 people found this helpful
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Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars #lovemydetour
Reviewed in the United States on April 17, 2020
Verified Purchase
I saw Amy speak 2 years ago and am glad I finally dedicated time to reading her book. She uses gratitude practice and art to help heal from sexual assault and so many medical issues and setbacks. I love her metaphor of embracing the detours in our lives and learning lessons from them.
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Susan
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most inspirational books I have ever read.
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2021
Verified Purchase
Amy’s story is endearing, compelling, and emotional. I was captivated from beginning to end. I highly rate this book for young and old.
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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Creating Hope
Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2023
This is the inspirational memoir of a woman who found astonishing levels of emotional, spiritual, and physical strength to overcome repeated traumas. First, there was sexual assault at a very young age by someone she had accepted as her mentor on the road to fulfilling what seemed like her destiny: singing and dancing on Broadway. Soon thereafter came a series of medical catastrophes, which time and again brought her near death. Amy recounts for the reader the physical torments she endured as she went through 27 highly complex, risky surgeries to repair the damage of a her initial, shocking medical crisis. That crisis, she suggests, long after this reader had come to the same conclusion, was the inevitable physical consequence of the trauma she endured at the hands of her so-called mentor. Remarkably, she first goes through the process of researching the psychological and emotional damage of trauma and its effects on the body before accepting and articulating that connection. But this memoir is not focused, as Amy refused to become focused, on her physical tragedy. It is focused on the spirituality she experienced, on the strength with which she met each new challenge. Amy shares with us her despair over her body failing her but responds to despair not by “finding” hope, but by “creating” it. “Hope is a job,” she writes, “not a state of mind you turn to. You have to actively create hope in difficult times, and sometimes we need to lie to ourselves to do so. [117]” Amy became an energized creator of hope through her writing, photography, painting, cartooning, and, miraculously, singing and dancing in a community theatre production when her recovery was advancing, yet still dependent on medical devices for survival. She created more art than most people who never have to confront the challenges that limited her physically in every moment. Amy’s memoir is not, however, a story of linear successes leading to a happy ending. It is a relentless account of progress and setbacks, small and sometimes big steps forward, and some even bigger steps backward. But Amy “created hope” for herself – and shares with the readers of this memoir her self-conscious strategies for doing do. She refused to see these twists and turns as “obstacles” on her destined path. Instead, she conceived them as a “detour” toward a different destiny – a beautiful detour – and created a powerful life lesson for readers to create hope for themselves.
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