Archives de catégorie : Memoir

THE UNMAKING de Stephanie Foo

In this science-based, remarkably candid account of what it’s like to heal from Complex PTSD, journalist Stephanie Foo offers a fascinating exploration of a psychological phenomenon we’re only beginning to understand and a relevant and powerful narrative of reckoning and healing.

THE UNMAKING
by Stephanie Foo
Ballantine, pub. date TBD

Stephanie Foo was an accomplished journalist, a producer at This American Life, won an Emmy, and launched a podcasting app, but behind her office door she was having panic attacks. At the age of 30 she was diagnosed with Complex PTSD. Finding few resources to help her heal, Stephanie set out to write her own guide, THE UNMAKING. With the determination and curiosity of an award-winning journalist, Stephanie investigates the science behind Complex PTSD and how it has shaped her own life. She interviews experts and tries a variety of therapies. She also dives into her past of extreme child abuse and neglect and uncovers family secrets.
While someone can develop PTSD from a single traumatic event, Complex PTSD blooms when the trauma happens over and over and over, over the course of years. Risk factors include being hit or verbally abused by a caretaker, having mentally ill, alcoholic or addict parents, or even facing poverty. Those numbers alone add up to around 50 million people. And that’s not including the large populations of those who may have developed Complex PTSD through domestic abuse, continual health issues, or POC and queer people living in threatening and discriminatory environments. They need help. And yet…nobody is talking about it. THE UNMAKING describes how C-PTSD is, essentially, brain damage, and the tragic impact it has on bodies and minds. But unlike the academic books on C-PTSD, Stephanie Foo also shares how it feels to learn that science as a survivor. She writes about her doubts, anguish, terrible setbacks, and ultimately, successes.

Stephanie Foo is a writer and radio producer. She most recently was a producer at the radio show This American Life, which reaches 5 million listeners every week. Before that, she helped create the public radio show Snap Judgment, where she produced nearly 200 stories in 4 years. Foo is an acclaimed advocate for diversity in all forms. She wrote a viral article for Transom about the importance of diverse workplaces, particularly in newsrooms, and speaks frequently on the topic of diversity and inclusion. She’s an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Columbia University and has spoken at Columbia, Vassar, Yale, Berkeley and CUNY.

SEED TO DUST by Marc Hamer

‘Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance meets Vita Sackville-West’

SEED TO DUST
by Marc Hamer
Harvill Secker (UK), April 2019 | Greystone Books (US), October 2019

Working through a year in the garden of a large country estate, a gardener explores the path that led him there. His days are spent with the magnolias and roses, moths and beetles and the distant lady who has employed him for the past thirty years. A broken biographical telling of the journey, mythology and poetry of an outcast boy who just wanted to be somebody’s flower, to an old man who has and is everything that he wants. Intimate, moving and full of beauty, Marc’s meditative prose fills the heart with an appreciation for the life we live, making SEED TO DUST the perfect companion for his critically-acclaimed first book, HOW TO CATCH A MOLE.

Chosen by the American IndieBound.org for its Indie Next List (which promotes the best books in the country at independent bookshops).

Marc Hamer was born in the North of England and moved to Wales over thirty years ago. After spending a period homeless, then working on the railway, he returned to education and studied fine art in Manchester and Stoke-on-Trent. He has worked in art galleries, marketing, graphic design, as a magazine editor and taught creative writing in a prison before becoming a gardener.

TOO MUCH FIRE de Eleanor Henderson

How do you live a full, adult life—as a parent and wife—when you are committed to someone overwhelmed and haunted by suffering and its grave limitations?

TOO MUCH FIRE
A Marriage
by Eleanor Henderson
Ecco, TBA

The very model of responsibility, stability and seeming calm, Eleanor’s marriage to Aaron, who she met in a Florida record store when she was 17, has been riddled with grave complications owing to Aaron’s fearsome, many years-long struggle with a diabolical range of maladies, afflictions and addictions. But for over 20 years, and with two young boys, they persist. In these first 125 pages, appended by a brief but incisive proposal, Eleanor speaks with jolting frankness and relentlessly revealing candor about what it means to commit yourself to someone who suffers so variously and mysteriously, as they seek a diagnosis for the periodic madness that afflicts him to such debilitating ends. How to contend with male vulnerability and weakness when we lack any honest guidelines for doing so? How do you temper your expectations of what you can get or expect from your partner? How can you help your beloved navigate a medical establishment that can’t name, identify or sympathetically treat your elusive, life-warping set of symptoms? How do you live a full, adult life—as a parent and wife—when you are committed tosomeone this overwhelmed and haunted by suffering and its grave limitations? Can and should you persist? In this memoir, acclaimed novelist Eleanor Henderson addresses these questions with lyrical lucidity and grace.

Eleanor Henderson was born in Greece, grew up in Florida, and attended Middlebury College and the University of Virginia, where she received her MFA in 2005. Her debut novel “Ten Thousand Saints” was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2011 by The New York Times and a finalist for the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction from The Los Angeles Times. She is also the author of the critically acclaimed novel “The Twelve-Mile Straight”. Her short stories have appeared in AgniNorth American Review, Ninth Letter, Columbia, Salon, and The Best American Short Stories. Her nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, All Things Considered, Poets & Writers, and

THE HOCKNEYS de John Hockney

“I have always been proud of my older siblings and felt the stories of individual determination to succeed and be themselves should be told. From inspiring parents, and my father’s philosophical comment, “Never Worry What the Neighbours Think,” (an aristocratic sentiment, as David says); we each pursued life paths that vary” – John Hockney

THE HOCKNEYS:
Never Worry What the Neighbours Think
by John Hockney
Legend Press, October 2019

The Hockneys is a never-before-seen insight into the lives of this family, from growing up in the Second World War in Bradford through to their diverse lives across three continents. Hardship, successes as well as close and complex relationships are poignantly illustrated by both famous and private pictures and paintings from David Hockney. With a rare and spirited look into the lives of an ordinary family with extraordinary stories, we begin to understand the creative freedom that led to the successful careers of all the Hockney children. How was it that a poor family from Bradford- headed by a whimsical, conscientious objector father and an intense, religiously strict mother- brought into existence an artist whose work has inspired generations?

John Hockney is a storyteller by profession, a writer and a musician. He migrated to Australia in 1968 but has retained strong ties with his large family. His brother is world renowned artist David Hockney.

THE LOVE PRISON MADE (AND UNMADE) d’Ebony Roberts

With echoes of Just Mercy and An American Marriage, THE LOVE PRISON MADE (AND UNMADE) is a remarkable memoir of a woman who falls in love with an incarcerated man, and the toll prison takes not only on those behind bars, but on their families and relationships

THE LOVE PRISON MADE (AND UNMADE)
My Story
by Ebony Roberts
Amistad, July 2019

Ebony’s parents were high school sweethearts and married young. By the time Ebony was born, the marriage was disintegrating. The little girl witnessed her parents’ brutal verbal and physical fights, fueled by her father’s alcoholism. Then her father tried to kill his mother. At five, Ebony was sexually assaulted. When she tried to tell, her voice was not heard.

Growing up, those experiences drastically affected the way Ebony viewed herself and set the pattern for her future romantic relationships. Despite being an intelligent, educated, and strong-minded woman, she was drawn to bad-boys: men who cheated; men who verbally abused her; men who disappointed her. Fed up, she cut off her hair and swore to wait for the partner God chose for her.
Then she met Shaka Senghor. Though she felt an intense spiritual connection, Ebony struggled with the idea that this man behind bars for murder could be the good love God wanted for her. Through letters and visits, she and Shaka fell deeply in love. After he was released they had a son, and Shaka was embraced by Oprah Winfrey and wrote a New York Times bestselling memoir. Their lives had been transformed—the worst should have been behind them.
But Shaka’s release was the beginning of the end of their love story. Traumatized by having doors shut in his face, Shaka became depressed and emotionally detached. His struggles to adjust to freedom would irrevocably damage their relationship.
The Love Prison Made (and Unmade) is heartfelt and insightful. It reveals powerful lessons about love, sacrifice, courage, and forgiveness; of living your highest principles and learning not to judge someone by their worst acts. Ultimately, it is a stark reminder of the emotional cost of American justice on human lives—the partners, wives, children, and friends—beyond the prison walls.

A former school administrator, Ebony Roberts is a writer, educator, activist, and researcher. She has taught at Michigan State University and the University of Michigan. She recently served as program director for #BeyondPrisons, an organization designed to uplift the voices of those impacted by the criminal justice system. She received her BA in Social Relations and Psychology, and a Ph.D in Educational Psychology from Michigan State University.