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One woman's true story of raising a child born three months premature - "propulsive, startling, and vivid, like motherhood itself" (Meg Wolitzer, New York Times-bestselling author of The Female Persuasion) . Vicki Forman gave birth to Evan and Ellie, weighing only one pound each, at twenty-three weeks' gestation. During the delivery she begged the doctors to "let her babies go" - knowing all too well that at their early stage of development they would likely die and, if they survived, would have a high risk of permanent disabilities. However, California law demanded resuscitation. Her daughter died just four days later; her son survived and was indeed multiply disabled: blind, nonverbal, and dependent on a feeding tube. This Lovely Life tells, with brilliant intensity, of what became of the Forman family after the birth of the twins - the harrowing medical interventions and ethical considerations involving the sanctity of life and death.