Other books that might interest you

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  Untitled for Now - Based on a...

  Desiree Moore

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  Helen wanted to break the cycle. 
  Raised in the deserts of Southern California by a family plagued with addiction, poverty, and trauma, Helen’s life was full of heartache and turmoil. Nevertheless, her circumstances fueled her desire to make it out. That was until one day, she broke. 
  When Helen wakes up in a mental hospital, her mind is shattered, her memories are gone, and she clings to the comfort of not remembering. But, when a memory of her daughter emerges, Helen realizes she has no choice but to unearth the painful truth and face her past. 
  Through dual timelines, readers will be immersed in the intricate tapestry of Helen’s life, gradually unraveling the events that led to her broken state. 
  Untitled for Now captures the difficulty of breaking chains, the essence of mother/daughter relationships, grief, and finding forgiveness for yourself. It is a novel for those who revel in the lived experiences of others and want to know that even the saddest stories can have a happy ending.

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  Grenfell: in the words of survivors

  Gillian Slovo

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  The early hours of Wednesday 14 June 2017. The north-west corner of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. A twenty-four-storey residential tower. The scene of a national tragedy.
  This powerful verbatim play is drawn from the testimony of residents – a group of survivors and bereaved – at the heart of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. It reveals the impact of the multiple failures that led to the most devastating residential fire in the UK since the Second World War, and asks: how do we stop this ever happening again?
  Startling, urgent and deeply moving, Grenfell: in the words of survivors explores the courage and resilience of an ill-treated community and their continued campaign for justice.
  Created from interviews by Gillian Slovo, the play was first performed at the National Theatre, London, in July 2023, co-directed by Phyllida Lloyd and Anthony Simpson-Pike.
  10% of the net proceeds from sales of this book will be donated by the publisher to the Grenfell Foundation, who support the bereaved and survivors in the aftermath of the fire, as well as help them ensure Grenfell is remembered long into the future.
  'Moving, heartfelt and important… a powerful piece of verbatim theatre that demands empathy, not sympathy' - Evening Standard
  'An engulfing experience… harrowing but not sensational… Slovo's play is new and important. It is not only that she uses the words of survivors; it's that they are her collaborators. The result is an inquiry of the best sort – the most humane kind – on stage' - Observer
  'A tour de force… deeply humane… infinitely more meaningful than dispassionate news footage… a tremendous piece of theatre' - Time Out
  'Gripping… shocking… piles up devastating detail… an ensemble masterpiece' - Guardian
  'Powerful' - Telegraph
  
  'A visceral insight into a human tragedy' - The Times

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  By Fire

  Rhonda Slota

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  "With meticulous detail and plainspoken language, Rhonda Harris Slota unveils the story of a family held hostage by religious extremism when its beloved father falls victim to hallucinations and paranoia. In adulthood, the daughter sets out to make peace with her father and through that process, constructs a covenant of her own, one of compassion and forgiveness." 
  ~ Paula Amen-Judah, author of Añoranza 
  "Rhonda Harris Slota’s writing is so fine, so precise, the way it includes the flowers, the laundry, the secrets, that I devoured her story. Incandescent poetry that shimmers as it remembers and reveals." 
  ~ Lauren Coodley, author of Lost Napa Valley 
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  Set in rural, southern Indiana in the 50’s-70’s, these poems tell the story of a complex family dynamic. This debut collection blends Bible images, authentic dialogue and powerful natural forces to relay the effects of family trauma and mental illness. 
  The daughter often questions her own sanity as she watches her fundamentalist father struggle with internal demons and the illusion that he is the prophet, Elijah. In this patriarchal world, the women hold together the seams of life’s tapestry through perseverance, inner wisdom and love. 
  As time passes and the father plunges deep into his fears and delusions, his young daughter learns to forge her own pathway through the maze of duality: dark and light, fear and joy. This finally leads her to reconciliation and acceptance through spiritual surrender.

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  Routes

  Rhiya Pau

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  At the core of this debut collection is a question – what is worth holding onto?
  Through poetic experiments that blend the academic and the artistic, Rhiya Pau queries complex characters and tender landscapes. Routes journeys from Ba's kitchen in Sonia Gardens to Independence hour in Delhi, across the pink shores of Nakuru, to meet a painter on Lee High Road.
  Celebrating fifty years since her community arrived in the UK, Pau chronicles the migratory histories of her ancestors and simultaneously lays bare the conflicts of identity that arise from being a member of the East African-Indian diaspora. In this multilingual discourse exhibiting vast formal range, Pau wrestles with language, narrative and memory, daring to navigate their collective fallibilities to architect her own identity.
  '[Routes]...holds up to the light the wisdom of the past, and asks what else is passed down along with it...a work of humane intelligence, formal experiment and linguistic verve' - Sarah Howe, Judge of Eric Gregory Awards 2022

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  But & Though

  Jake Hawkey

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  Read by the author, Jake Hawkey.In But & Though, Jake Hawkey scrutinizes the impact of parental addiction on families, its title a nod to the language of dependency, its circles of prevarication and excuse.Hawkey’s poems chart the loss of a father and the resilient love between siblings, and take an unflinching look at a parent–child relationship sometimes painfully inverted through alcoholism.Hawkey’s fresh perspective and playful style introduces a vital, authentic new voice in British poetry. It will appeal also to those interested in the wider literature of addiction and the complexities of urban working-class life in Britain. Hawkey approaches these subjects from highly original and personal angles, breathing life into his characters and settings. Ultimately, we come to know a young writer attempting to ‘detach with love’ as he strides forward into his own life.

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  aka bpNichol - A Preliminary...

  Frank Davey

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  Reflecting on the career of a prominent poet, this biography focuses on Canadian wordsmith Barrie Nichol — more commonly known by his pen name, bpNichol — who was a practicing lay psychoanalyst and vice president of one the largest and long-lasting North American communes for more than a decade. Recognizing his international influence as both a visual and sound poet, Nichol's literary achievements are reviewed, including The Martyrology, a renowned, seven-volume poem, four novels, two musical comedies, six children's books, hundreds of hand-drawn visual poems, and even 10 episodes of Jim Henson's hit television series Fraggle Rock. Penned by one of Nichol's numerous literary collaborators, this account reveals the close connections among the writer's various activities, particularly how the autobiographical inquiries and Freudian dream theory linked with the young poet's biographical self-awareness. The book demonstrates how the Subject's main psychoanalytic client was his own writing, following Nichol as he explored its slips, accidental puns, and unintended meanings and implications for the communal future of the human species, both in high literature and comical prime time television.

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