Description

Peter’s mother is dying. Born in England and having spent most of her adult life as a doctor in Zimbabwe, she now lies on a hospital bed in the partitioned living room of his sister’s London apartment, her accent having overnight become posher than the Queen’s. Unsentimental, fiercely stubborn and at times hilarious, she finally drops her guard, losing all fear of conflict to become the family provocateur.

While confronting the revelations of what his family was – and wasn’t – and the stoicism that sometimes threatened to destroy them, Peter also mourns the ending of his long marriage. At this point of rupture and healing, Peter reflects on his family’s legacy of exile and their tenuous hold on home.

In Exit Wounds: A Story of Love, Loss and Occasional Wars, Peter Godwin considers, with both tenderness and candour, the life of emigres, exiles and refugees, and grieves the many losses that make life both magnificent and unbearable. He brings us into the spaces which make us question, suffer and celebrate the relationships we have among family and friends, and the healing of our own wounds.

Publisher Review

A profound account of this strange time of life we’re all in – when all the certainties we thought we’d sorted out are collapsing around us and we’re suddenly like naked children in the wilderness . . . This moving memoir is an essential addition to Peter Godwin’s brilliant oeuvre — CLAIRE MESSUD Finely wrought, contemplative, intimate, lyrical and searingly emotionally honest, Exit Wounds is a story of war and love and of tragedy. In a life that has been marked by loss: of a birthright, a nation, of family and finally of his marriage, Peter Godwin traverses the wilderness of grief towards redemption. Exit Wounds will leave you breathless and imprint itself indelibly upon your heart — AMINATTA FORNA So funny, so elegant, so erudite, and as a portrait of an extraordinary mother and the family she made, it is masterful, moving and unforgettable — DAVE EGGERS Magnificent and moving — TAN TWAN ENG A memoir on love, loss and life, of rare candour and intimacy, utterly compelling, by a truly brilliant writer — PHILIPPE SANDS Unforgettable . . . I was so enchanted by Godwin’s prose, his insights, his deft use of imagery and the conversations between mother and son, husband and wife, brother and sister – some heartbreaking, some funny, some walking that tightrope between – that I didn’t want this brilliant book to end — MAGGIE SMITH A rich, shattering memoir of an extraordinary family. Lifted up by rueful humour, easy erudition, painful honesty and deep affection, Peter Godwin’s story swings between Zimbabwe and New York, with time in London, where his formidable mother is dying. Exit Wounds is a harrowing, gorgeous account, ultimately, of his own long search for home — WILLIAM FINNEGAN Peter Godwin is already a classic African writer. Exit Wounds is riveting, heart-rending and borderless in its brilliance and sympathy. What a book — JOSEPH O’NEILL A masterpiece. Peter Godwin spins literary gold out of shards of heartbreak and humour — AMANDA FOREMAN Praise for Mukiwa: The life of the white boys and girls in colonial Africa has vanished now, but this fine and powerful memoir is a marvellous contribution to its literature — WILLIAM BOYD * * Sunday Times * *