SHE EVEN REVEALS THAT SHE AND BILL BINGE-WATCHED THE GOOD WIFE TOGETHER.

But Clinton also takes more than her share of the blame. She lauds her staff while accepting her own failings, opening up in a way that makes it easy to lament: where was this Hillary on the campaign trail? Where was the grandma who loves jalapenos and hot sauce, and is full of quick comebacks? She shares the intimacy of her relationship with Bill Clinton, a man whose infidelities almost cost him the presidency and may have hurt her chances, too. She even reveals that they bingewatched The Good Wife together in the wake of her loss; my favourite revelation, as one can almost imagine their shared, probably tense and perhaps even cathartic experience of watching a dramatized version of adultery in the public eye.

Clinton is, finally and in her own words, human and whole. That wiggle in the first presidential debate gave us a glimpse of who she is beneath the practiced facade, but this book offers so much more – a side of Clinton it would have been nice to see a year ago, before it was too late.

So much of the story of the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign has been written, its narrative set, with her aloofness, her cold demeanour likely cemented in the history books, where she will be remembered as a controversial First Lady and the first female major party nominee for president. Her effective work as Secretary of State, among other accomplishments, will likely become a footnote.

She’s well aware of this, and so the book is her attempt to give herself a voice in her own myth-making. A Maya Angelou quote unravels Clinton’s deepest feelings:

“You may write me down in history / With your bitter twisted lies, / You may trod me in the very dirt / But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”

Yet, despite the framing, the book is less bitter than it is hopeful. At times, it’s almost a self-help, offering both advice on how to move on – yoga, walks in the forest, family, books and perspective – and a rallying cry for those who still believe “Love Trumps Hate.”

If you still aren’t over the election, and if, like me, you went home to have your partner roll over, half asleep, and say, “Women’s rights really are f---ed, huh?” – and you sobbed yourself to sleep only to wake up and go back to work – the book is a tonic. It soothes the soul.

Clinton closes the book with a nod to her campaign slogan, “Stronger Together,” with a chapter called Onward Together, which answers the question asked by so many who felt beaten and broken watching a boor take office: “What do we do now?” “There was only one answer: Keep going.”