Archives de catégorie : Memoir

FREE LOVE de Michelle Tea

A wildly entertaining, authentic, and profound guide to navigating freedom and commitment, in a society intent on pinning us down.

FREE LOVE: Adventures in Marriage and Polyamory
by Michelle Tea
HarperOne, Fall 2026
(via Frances Goldin Literary)

Polyamory is having a moment. Whether you love it or hate it, the explosion of non-monogamy into the mainstream suggests a widespread frustration and stuck-ness within traditional relationship structures, perhaps especially among women and femmes, whose sexual freedom has long been contained and policed. Why do we have to choose between adventure and security? Why can’t we try, at least, to have them both?

Long before its current it-girl moment, polyamory was foundational to many radical subcultures, who saw in it not only the chance for sexual freedom, but a path towards dismantling patriarchal oppression and the zero-sum game of capitalism – a path towards personal, spiritual, and collective growth, care, and empowerment. Polyamory was also foundational to the life of beloved writer and queer icon Michelle Tea, from the clandestine, ill-fated throuples of her late teens, to the punk lesbian underground of 90s San Francisco, through marriage and divorce, Tinder flings and enduring friendships, heartbreak and motherhood.

In FREE LOVE, she will share these juicy, hilarious, and moving stories with her characteristic wit and charm, while delving into the radical, forgotten history of openness, and interviewing and researching widely, to guide readers through the thorny choices we make in our own relationships – poly or no. A modern-day The Ethical Slut meets Dolly Alderton’s Everything I Know About Love, it marries the storytelling of Maggie Smith and Samantha Irby with the practical wisdom and heartwarming appeal of writers like Glennon Doyle, Emily Nagoski, and Vanessa Marin.

Michelle Tea is the author of over a dozen widely acclaimed books memoir, fiction, and cultural criticism, and the recipient of awards from PEN/America, the Guggenheim, Lambda Literary, and the Rona Jaffe Foundation. Her books have been translated into French, Japanese, Slovenian, German, Italian, and Swedish.

THE NIGHT GARDENER de Susannah Charleson

In the spirit of Why Fish Don’t Exist by Lulu Miller, Fox and I by Catherine Raven, and Wintering by Katherine May, THE NIGHT GARDENER is a beautiful inquiry into the natural world, as well as a contemplation on loss and grief and the hope of re-birth. A perfect mix of narrative, memoir and nature writing.

THE NIGHT GARDENER:
Grief, Regrowth, and the Secret Life of Nature After Dark
by Susannah Charleson
St. Martin’s Press, Fall 2027/Winter 2028

It is another sleepless night for Susannah Charleson, beset by grief over the death of her mother, and waging a years’ long battle with insomnia in the way one does when a loved one is lost and you’re left contemplating life. A shrill cry echoes in the middle of the night (Human? Animal? What?), and Susannah is drawn out onto her porch and suddenly headlong into a childhood memory of that same sound—a fox crying out in the dark—and a youthful fascination with the night that likewise kept her curious younger self up at odd hours. What goes on when humans are sleeping? Susannah remembers wondering. What lives do the plants, animals, and insects lead in the night?

And so, she lights on the idea of using her anxious, sleepless hours in another way—by gardening at night. She studies the medieval practice of two sleeps, in which an individual rests twice each night, divided by an active middle-of-the-night pursuit. She researches the history of the land and the soil on which her house is perched. She gathers tools, gear, seeds, and a research-grade microscope, hatching plans to rise night after night when the rest of the world is sleeping and work outside over the course of a year to transform her disheveled yard into a beautiful garden sanctuary and wildlife habitat. Frozen ground, stubborn roots, a fall that trips her watch alarm, a tornado blowing through, and a four-foot snake with a penchant for surprises make for a bumpy beginning, but as each night passes, dogs by her side, and progress is made, what Susannah discovers in the dark is a revelation. And a salvation.

THE NIGHT GARDENER is a beautiful look into the science of the natural world, as well as into the human soul, an inquiry of the sort that can only happen when the world quiets enough so we can listen, really listen, and see, and not just appreciate but come to understand. 

Susannah Charleson is an award-winning journalist, professor and the author of three books, including the New York Times bestselling Scent of the Missing: Love and Partnership with a Search and Rescue Dog. Charleson’s work has been featured in The Washington Post, The Dallas Morning News, The Wall Street Journal, The Denver Post, AARP Magazine, People, The Bark, Life+Dog, and on ABC’s Good Morning America, Fox & Friends, and NPR’s Here & Now.

THE BURIED TEACHESTS d’Annika Blau

An extraordinary true story of family secrets, scandal, and survival.

THE BURIED TEACHESTS
by Annika Blau
on submission
(via The Pilkington Agency)

THE BURIED TEACHESTS follows journalist Annika Blau’s journey after she stumbles upon a secret family legacy. What follows is a remarkable investigation into a family who rose to prominence as purveyors of the famous 4711 cologne, only to be brought down by scandal, internment, and erasure.

A few years ago, Annika discovered that two teachests of mail collected by her great-grandfather had been found during a demolition and auctioned off for a small fortune by strangers. They were lauded as one of the most significant hauls of military mail in Commonwealth history, containing rare correspondence from Sydney’s WW1 prisoner of war camp. But for Annika,they revealed family secrets, silences and shame.

Using the mail as clues, Annika uncovers the riches to rags tale of the relatives who collected it. Charting a path through two world wars and the Great Depression, it’s a story about the family’s rise to Sydney’s high society and their fall to years behind bars as British “war trophies”. At the heart of the story is a mystery: why did Annika’s great-grandfather collect this historic haul only to hide it under some floorboards? Ultimately, she discovers he buried not just the teachests, but the truth of who the family were and where they came from.

At once memoir and investigation, The Buried Teachests sits alongside Wifedom by Anna Funder and The Hare with Amber Eyes as a powerful exploration of identity, loss, and the truths families bury to endure.

Annika Blau is an award-winning journalist, editor and podcaster. She is a reporter for ABC Radio National’s flagship investigative program, Background Briefing. In 2023, she wrote, produced and presented The Buried Teachests: a two-part podcast series for RN’s History Listen program.

THE CARPENTER AND THE CATHEDRAL de Hank Silver

At once an insider account of the historic restoration and a celebration of craft and what the act of making and building reveals about being human in our modern world. For readers of Patrick Hutchison’s Cabin (St. Martin’s Press), Callum Robinson’s Ingrained (Ecco), and Matthew B. Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft (Penguin).

THE CARPENTER AND THE CATHEDRAL:
The Meaning of Craft and the Reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris
by Hank Silver
Viking, Spring 2028
(via DeFiore and Company)

Six hundred logs. When American carpenter Hank Silver arrived at a workshop in Normandy, he was surrounded by heaping piles of oak logs. His small, international team’s task was to hew all them by hand, using reproductions of medieval axes, into more than a thousand individual beams, then lay out and cut fifty-seven roof trusses and framing that would become the nave of the Notre-Dame de Paris. They had just eight months.

When fire engulfed the iconic Notre-Dame Cathedral on April 15, 2019, few believed it could be restored to its former glory using the original materials and methods of the thirteenth century. But thanks to a small group of traditional craftsman, the restoration was indeed possible. THE CARPENTER AND THE CATHEDRAL: The Meaning of Craft and the Reconstruction of Notre-Dame de Paris, is Silver’s behind-the-scenes account of one of the most significant architectural restorations of all time. But it is so much more.

Hank Silver was the only American who worked on site at the cathedral, and his path to Notre-Dame was anything but traditional. Born and raised in an observant Jewish family in New York City, he came to carpentry in college when he happened upon a stash of woodworking books at his grandmother’s house. After graduating, he pursued carpentry and learned traditional timber framing—and what it means to work with one’s hands and with centuries-old tools that have been worn smooth by countless hands before. In captivating prose, he reflects on the connection between the maker and the materials, between craftsmanship and what endures.

For readers of Patrick Hutchison’s Cabin (St. Martin’s Press), Callum Robinson’s Ingrained (Ecco), and Matthew B. Crawford’s Shop Class as Soulcraft (Penguin), THE CARPENTER AND THE CATHEDRAL is at once an insider account of the historic restoration and a celebration of craft and what the act of making and building reveals about being human in our modern world. 

Hank Silver is a master carpenter and the founder of Ironwood Timberworks. He built custom timber frame structures throughout New England for more than 10 years. Since 2018, he has been a member of the volunteer crew Carpenters Without Borders, whose mission is the restoration of world carpentry heritage and the transmission of traditional skills and techniques to future generations of craftspeople. Silver has been featured in two documentaries and was awarded the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art’s 2025 Arthur Ross Award in Artisanship & Craftsmanship. He has been featured in The New York Times, National Geographic, and GQ and on CBS News, NBC’s Weekend Nightly News, and Good Day New York. This is his first book.

SONITA de Sonita Alizada

Nearly 15 million girls, including many in the U.S., are forced into marriage each year. Each of these girls has a price tag—and a story. Sonita Alizada was almost sold twice. Her price tag was $9,000. The money her family received for selling her would pay for her brother’s wife.

SONITA:
My Fight Against Tyranny and My Escape to Freedom
by Sonita Alizada
HarperOne, July 2025

The first time Sonita was put up for sale, she was 10 years old and she thought that she was participating in a dress-up game. She quickly realized that, in her culture, a wedding is a kind of funeral for the bride. Sonita says, “It represents the loss of a future. The loss of a voice.” After the marriage fell through, she was placed on sale again. She was expected to form a family, sleep with a man she never met, and then repeat the terrible cycle with her own children. But Sonita wanted more.

In SONITA, the Afghan rap artist and activist shares the story of how she fled Afghanistan to pursue her dreams and evolved into a woman who is changing the world. She shares incredible highs, like winning the song writing contest that gave her the opportunity of a lifetime, and unimaginable lows, like when the cruel Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, and how some of her family escaped, and how some were left behind.

Sonita teaches us all to hold to hope. You were chosen to be part of this world and your dreams have power, too. You can be a difference maker. In these pages, Sonita shares her pictures, poems, and songs. Readers are invited to scan QR codes so they can listen to Sonita’s music. This book is more than Sonita’s story. It is a love letter for anyone who has ever dreamed of more and held onto hope that their story would be different than the ones that came before them.

Sonita Alizada is an Afghan rapper and activist who escaped child marriage in 2015, when her viral music video, “Daughters for Sale,” helped her secure a scholarship to study in the United States. Through her music and advocacy work, Sonita has campaigned for women’s rights and against child marriage, partnering with organizations like the Malala Fund, Global Partnership for Education, and Girls Not Brides. She has received the U.S. Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award, the MTV Europe Music Generation Change Award, and was included in BBC’s 100 Women in 2015. Sonita, who learned English upon coming to the U.S., graduated from Bard College in 2023; she is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.