At the end of her bestselling memoir Eat, Pray, Love, Elizabeth Gilbert fell in
love with Felipe - a Brazilian-born man of Australian citizenship who'd been liv
ing in Indonesia when they met. Resettling in America, the couple swore eternal
fidelity to each other, but also swore to never, ever, under any circumstances g
et legally married. (Both survivors of difficult divorces. Enough said.) But pro
vidence intervened one day in the form of the U.S. government, who - after unexp
ectedly detaining Felipe at an American border crossing - gave the couple a choi
ce: they could either get married, or Felipe would never be allowed to enter the
country again. Having been effectively sentenced to wed, Gilbert tackled her fe
ars of marriage by delving completely into this topic, trying with all her might
to discover (through historical research, interviews and much personal reflecti
on) what this stubbornly enduring old institution actually is.
