Terry Gross

Rachel Eliza Griffiths, welcome to Fresh Air.

I really like your book a lot.

Thank you so much, Terri.

And I'm going to call you Eliza from here on in because that's how you prefer to be called.

So let's start with your wedding day, which you describe as both the best and worst day of your life.

Best because you were getting married to a man you really loved and who loved you too.

And worst because of your dearest friend's disappearance and death.

How far were you into the wedding when you found out that she was dead?

You have dissociative identity disorder, and that kind of kicked in on your wedding day.

Could you describe what that is, what the disorder is?

But just to be more specific, you actually have alter egos that kick in, like versions of yourself at different ages.

Could you just describe that a little bit so we understand a little bit better what you go through?

Let's get back to your wedding day.

Did your alters show up that day?

I interviewed your husband, Salman Rushdie, after his memoir, Knife, was published.

And Knife is about the knife attack on him when he was being interviewed at the Chautauqua Festival in western upstate New York.

And in that book, he describes the wedding day briefly, and he describes it as a day of, like, beautiful lights.

weather, a day of joy.

He doesn't mention the death of your friend Aisha and the crisis mode that you were in.

And I'm wondering if you read the book before publication and what you thought of that omission.