"My Happy Life is the story of a disarmingly simple, nameless woman with a singular talent for compassion. Abandoned in a locked room in a derelict hospital for the mentally ill, with no windows and no food, she writes her memories on the walls. After a childhood of abuse at the hands of the other children in the orphanage and the caretaker who called her "extra" because nobody wanted her, and an adulthood marked by betrayal and the loss of her only child, she remains incapable of bitterness.

Loving her enemies, generous to a fault, she finds grace and communion in astonishing places. As the secret of her happiness is slowly brought to light, her injuries and grief recede and she is able to live each moment as though it were her last - full of gratitude, longing, and delight."--BOOK JACKET.