Description

‘Her best novel yet’ The Times
‘Incredibly compelling’ Daily Mail
‘Incandescent’The Observer
‘Fiercely intelligent’ Publishers Weekly

Two parents stand by powerlessly as their only child seems intent on destroying herself. Meanwhile the mother – a novelist – attempts to understand her uneasy, unresolved relationship with her own mother.

Weaving between childhoods past and present, as well as a current narrative laced with temptation and betrayal, this is the delicate journey of a mother, daughter, wife and author struggling to make sense of her world. But can a writer ever be trusted with the truth of her own story?

Clear-eyed, self-lacerating and at times frighteningly direct, Julie Myerson’s latest novel explores maternal love as the emotional foundation we both crave and fear. A howl of fury, as well as a moving love letter from a mother to a daughter, this is a book about damage, addiction, recovery and creativity.

Publisher Review

'Some writers are given their material as a form of destiny, and Julie Myerson's nonfiction is a startling recognition of that destiny. This glitteringly painful novel, so steady and clear in its analysis of addiction, creativity, and the factors that determine female and familial identity, is the book [Myerson] was intended to write, and she has elevated it into a template for the re-making of self by means of a transformative and radical honesty' -- Rachel Cusk 'I found it truly remarkable, simultaneously honest and tricksy, deeply emotional and cunningly constructed, like having a magician explain an unbelievable trick even as she astonishes you with it. She manages to speak with heartbreaking clarity about the damage of addiction within a family and at the same to time to examine the rights and responsibilities of the professional writer of fiction to her subject matter, herself and her readers. You would think the two parts could not co-exist but not only does she manage them superbly, but they also constantly add to, complicate and expand the reader's experience and understanding. I was moved and dazzled in equal measure' -- Olivia Hetreed This is such a compulsive read. Searingly honest and raw, Julie Myerson's new novel cuts to the heart of emotions we might try to evade, because they're just too overwhelming -- Deborah Moggach 'Searing and tragic and cleverly layered, this thought-provoking novel about mothers and daughters, guilt and responsibility, fiction and truth, took me to the dark interior of family relationships and left me heart-broken. Just wonderful' -- Claire Fuller 'Utterly compelling and painfully truthful' * Polly Findlay * 'Myerson writes with devastating clarity about the most complex and troubling of emotions. Nonfiction is painful, powerful, and utterly compelling' * Sarah Waters * 'Nonfiction is compassionate, intelligent and bloody novel, where trust and love, motherhood and creativity crash and break on the rocks of addiction, treachery and confusion. Myerson's combination of ferocity and tenderness is unique' * Louisa Young * In plain, unflinching sentences, Julie Myerson takes us right into a family's broken heart. Nonfiction might be a novel, but it feels like the truth. A raw, urgent, and compulsive read -- Rupert Thomson Sitting somewhere between fact and fiction, this is a raw exploration of a mother's attempt to save her addict daughter. The relationships between the main character and both her daughter and her critical mother are written with sharp-eyed insight * Good Housekeeping * This novel blazes with truths about not just addiction but female identity and maternal love, compassion and creativity... the author goes further than most and the results are nothing less than incandescent * The Observer * Seemingly candid, clear-eyed and glittering with emotional truths, this is nonetheless the work of a writer scrupulously in control of her story as she flits between past and present, revealing the complications of disharmonious homes * Mail on Sunday * It's her best novel yet. Myerson has yet to win a prize or score a real bestseller; this may be the one. It feels cripplingly truthful... it justifies its own existence -- Alex O'Connell * The Times * Gripping... satisfyingly propulsive * The Spectator * Searingly honest -- Andrea Catherwood, BBC Radio 4 Woman's Hour Informed by her own son's drug troubles, Myerson's latest blazes with raw emotion, a tale of a mother trying to save her daughter from addiction, tackling guilt, grief and familial love * The i * I wolfed it all down - it's just so incredibly compelling * Daily Mail * Stark, direct... well handled * The Sunday Times * No one could have written more honestly about the torment of watching a child descend into addiction than Julie Myerson -- Miranda France * Prospect * [Julie's] writing is both beautiful and addictive * The Echo * Myerson has written across many genres and she is uniformly brilliant in all of them * The Northern Echo * An unsparing portrait of the terrors of motherhood, from both ends of the telescope, as well as a deep meditation on art and where it comes from. Searingly honest, sophisticatedly assembled: a brilliant provocation, right down to its title * Jonathan Dee *