Sample Chapters from 
Why Do I Love These People?

For three years, #1 New York Times bestselling author Po Bronson crossed the landscape to find people who have survived tremendous hardship in their families and managed to create a better experience today. In Why Do I Love These People?, Bronson calls upon his gift for powerful nonfiction narrative and philosophical insight to tell the stories of nineteen people. Told with honesty, candor, and in the entertaining style that is Bronson's trademark, these stories will catch you off guard, pull you in, and give you a better understanding of your own family. Even if you do not have pressing family issues in your life right now, you will find inspiration and grace in these stories of people overcoming devastating crises and emerging changed and often stronger.

Please go ahead and invite your friends and family to read these and help spread the word. The ones that are complete chapters are in PDF format, which are easier for you to print. (The four excerpts marked with an asterisk * are available only temporarily.)

• The first five pages of the book's introduction begins on a river in Texas.

• Chapter One, "The Cook's Story" (PDF) *

• Chapter Two, "The Trial" (PDF) *

• Chapter Three, "Bumpkin" (PDF) *

• The gut wrenching chapter "The Tree" begins with this amazing metaphor as its first two pages ...

• The book pauses in the middle, and we take a break from the emotional toll of the stories to we learn some statistics that challenge everything we've been told about the pessimistic state of family. In fact, there are great misconceptions about family life today. Read from "Halftime."

• The chapter "The Tornado" is the most novelistic of all the chapters. (PDF) *

• The book ends with this story of me and my brother.