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Bestselling author Cheryl Strayed hiked a total of 1,100 miles along the U.S. West Coast in 1995. Her journey lasted for three months that led to a bestselling book in 2012 titled Wild. She never realised though that the biggest reward she is to get from writing her own memoir is meeting her half-sister who happens to be an avid reader of her book.

The author of Wild said that she has always been aware that she has a half-sister, but they have never really known each other. They have only met online as grownups after the said reading incident happened which sort of tied up their destinies. Ms Strayed herself is too shy, but she's hoping to finally meet her half-sister in person still.

According to Ms Strayed, her miraculous half-sister did not even get to finish the chapter one of her book when she started realising that the anonymous father she was talking about in the book is the same father she has.

The Journey of the Memoir 'Wild'

Ms Strayed's hiking journey lasted for three months, which she often described in her own memoir as life changing. In her interview with the NPR Staff, she shared that out of the numerous emails she received from people who have read and connected with her own story, it was her half-sister's mail that stood out the most.

Her half-sister emphasised in her mail that they were not really connected in some parts of the story, but literally connected because they have the same dad. Ms Strayed's half-sister happened to like travel books and the cover photo of the author's book somehow attracted her curious eye.

Secrets of Memoir Writing

Ms Strayed further shared during her NPR interview with Rachel Martin that the key in memoir writing is apply the conscious effort to let your readers feel how valuable it is to be human by depicting well various human experiences.

It should definitely lead to surprising twists just the way it turned out unexpectedly for her and her half-sister.