“Life’s a journey, not a destination.” It’s a sentiment that we’ve all heard a million times before, this idea that where we wind up is less important than how we got there. And it’s a true one, albeit a bit of a cliché at this point.

Sometimes, though, we have no idea what someone’s journey actually entails until that person shares their story.

Erin French is known for her celebrated restaurant The Lost Kitchen, based in a renovated grist mill in the tiny Maine town of Freedom. She has received accolades from all over the culinary universe, with big names and big outlets all clamoring to shower her with praise for the amazing dining experience that she has built in her tiny corner of the world.

What you might not now is just how much she went through to get here.

“Finding Freedom: A Cook’s Story; Remaking a Life from Scratch” (Celadon Books, $28) is the story of French’s journey in her own words. It is a story of one woman’s voyage of self-discovery and the many dizzying highs and shattering lows that came along the way. It’s a work of reflection and at-times brutal honesty, dotted with revelations and confessions. There are tears aplenty, but also more than a few laughs as well; it’s a portrait of a sometimes fractured and always full life.

Through it all, the indomitable spirit of Erin French shines through. Even in those moments where she seems to be at her lowest, when her world is crumbling around her, that fortitude is obvious. This is a woman who took every shot that life could throw at her and simply refused to stay down. That resilience is on full display throughout this book, and it is only that resilience that allowed her to become the person that she is today.

PORTLAND — PortFringe, Maine’s Fringe Festival, will produce its sixth annual fundraising event, POP-UP Dante’s Inferno, on April 3at 7 p.m. via a live watch party online. To buy tickets or for more information about streaming-on-demand after the event, please head to http://portfringe.com/inferno/.

The pandemic has cast a long shadow over Portland’s usually vibrant performing arts community. Artists, companies, and venues have shuttered or are struggling to stay afloat. With shows cancelled for most of 2020 and into this year, performers of all stripes have been forced to go dormant or reinvent how they create. The unique energy of POP-UP has brought a new level of connection and invention to PortFringe. These fearless artists have stretched their skills and responded to the call to create art in a digital medium, some of them for the first time. PortFringe is back with the fierce injection of creativity that we’ve all needed.