Heartland - A Memoir

Neil Cross

Summary

From the creator of Luther: Told with absolute veracity and unsparing candor, Heartland is the memoir of an isolated little boy and the brutish stepfather he couldn’t help but love When Neil Cross was born, his mother suffered from severe postpartum depression and later admitted to trying to kill herself and her baby son. Then, when he was five, she “went out and didn’t come back,” leaving behind her children and their heartbroken father. Two years later she returns and gains custody of Neil, taking him to live with her new partner, Derek Cross, who showers him with attention and love in a way that Neil has never known. Derek teaches him about music and books; he is patient but firm, and more reliable than Neil’s mother. But as Neil grows older he realizes his stepfather is more complicated than he seems. For all his love, Derek is a manipulator, an adulterer, a racist, and a con man. And he is the father whom Neil now loves. With devastating honesty, Neil Cross explores the circumstances of this love—one of pleasant rewards but consequences too dire to predict.

Available since: 01/27/2015.

Print length: 336 pages.

Other books that might interest you

Conversations with Isaiah Berlin

Ramin Jahanbegloo

An illuminating and witty dialogue with one of the greatest intellectual figures of the twentieth century. Ramin Jahanbegloo's interview with Isaiah Berlin grew into a series of five conversations which offer an intimate view of Berlin and his ideas. They include discussions on pluralism and liberty as well as the thinkers and writers who influenced Berlin. This revised edition provided an excellent introduction to Berlin's thought. Ramin Jahanbegloo is an Iranian philosopher, who has taught in Europe and North America. In 2006 he was imprisoned for several months in Iran. He is currently teaching Political Philosophy at Toronto University. 'Though like Our Lord and Socrates he does not publish much, he thinks and says a great deal and has had an enormous influence on our times'. Maurice Bowra 'Berlin never talks down to the interviewer. Conversations here means the minds of the interviewed and interviewer meet on equal terms in language that is transparently clear, informed, witty and entertaining'. Stephen Spender 'He is wise without seeming pompous, witty without seeming trivial, affectionate without seeming sentimental'. Michael Ignatieff 'Isaiah Berlin... has for fifty years in this talkative and quarrelsome city (Oxford) been something special, admired by all and disliked by no-one... a benevolent super-don'. John Bayley http://berlin.wolf.ox.ac.uk/

Show book