It's a story of adventure, loss and personal growth, and one of those books that readers can't get enough of—literally. So we sat down with Cheryl Strayed to talk about all the juicy bits that aren't in the book, Wild, from the joyful and the surprising to the bittersweet.

Then, tune in or log on to watch Cheryl's entire interview with Oprah on OWN, Oprah.com, Facebook.com/OWNTV and Facebook.com/SuperSoulSunday this Sunday at 11 a.m. ET/PT.

1. The Scene from the Book That She Hated to Cut but Had To

One of my favorite scenes was about my ex-husband and I living in Brooklyn. It was New Year's Day, and we heard this strange yowling coming from the ceiling of our bedroom closet. So we took a hammer and clawed away until we'd removed all the plaster and Sheetrock. Sitting inside the walls were these two emaciated kittens completely covered in soot and grease. They'd obviously been lost in the innards of the building for weeks.

We saved them, but just finding them was symbolic in a lot of ways, about who we were and what was happening in our marriage at the time. The two of us were like those kittens, lost in the innards of the building. We couldn't find our way out. But I couldn't get the scene to work within the trajectory of the story. So I took it out, which was so, so, so painful.

6 more "deleted scenes"