Alphabetical Diaries (Paperback)
Sheila Heti (author)Published: 06/02/2024
A radical and audacious autobiographical experiment, Heti's alphabetical reworking of her diaries over a ten-year-period yields boundless psychological insights and unexpected truths.
Sheila Heti kept a record of her thoughts over a ten-year period, then arranged the sentences from A to Z.
In the vein of Joe Brainard’s I Remember and Edouard Levé’s Autoportrait, passionate and reflective, joyful and despairing, these are the alphabetical diaries.
Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions
ISBN: 9781804270776
Number of pages: 168
Dimensions: 197 x 125 mm
MEDIA REVIEWS
‘Alphabetical Diaries is a testament to Heti’s artistic power. She gently leads the reader into new dimensions of language previously undiscovered. Beautiful and uncompromising.’ — Marlowe Granados, author of Happy Hour
'A book that is in many ways is an ode to the sentence; from the muscle of single line to the power that comes with accrual. An immersive and hugely entertaining read.' — Sinéad Gleeson author of Constellations
‘I am drawn to Sheila Heti’s writing like a moth to a flame and Alphabetical Diaries is amongst the most affecting, exquisite books I’ve ever encountered. It is, simply put, utterly and startlingly good. Heti writes so creaturely, so bodily, that it feels like a whole new genre is being formed as we read.’ — Kerri ní Dochartaigh author of Cacophony of Bone
‘I’ll read anything Sheila Heti writes.’ — Lauren Oyler, author of Fake Accounts
‘Pure Colour is the apocalypse written as trance, a sleep-walker’s song about the end of all things... an original, a book that says something new for our difficult times.' — Anne Enright, Guardian (on Pure Colour)
‘Buoyed by a dazzling assortment of questions, curiosities and wild propositions that betray the author’s agile and untamed mind... [Pure Colour] brings into view a certain organic and ecstatic wholeness: bright splashes of feeling and folly, of grief and loss... [It] defies classification.’ — Alexandra Kleeman, New York Times Book Review (on Pure Colour)
‘Exhilarating... it made me want to write.’ — Sally Rooney, on How Should a Person Be?
‘Sheila Heti has broken new ground.’ — Rachel Cusk, on Motherhood
‘Complex, artfully messy and hilarious.’ — Miranda July, on How Should a Person Be?
‘Thrilling, very funny, and almost unbearably moving.’ — Garth Greenwell, on Motherhood
‘Courageous, necessary, visionary.’ — Elif Batuman, on Motherhood
‘Like Iris Murdoch’s novels, Heti’s are philosophically intense, although Heti's work is pared down where Murdoch's was Rabelaisian.’ — Dwight Garner, New York Times
You may also be interested in...
“Extremely Hard Work”
This is a collection of ten years of diary entries, thoughts and memories arranged in alphabetical order. As an intellectual exercise this seems like a super interesting thing to do. As a thing that you are doing for... More
“Thrillingly New”
What a relief it is to find someone still discovering new things to do with literature, willing to take chances and offer up something truly different.
This is something defiantly conceptual, released in a time...
More
“Abstract and fascinating”
Huge thank you to Fitzcarraldo Editions for sending me a proof copy!
Admittedly a huge fan of Heti’s work, beginning first with How Should A Person Be? and then onto the fantastic Pure Colour, where she seems to...
More
Please sign in to write a review
Sign In / Register
Sign In
Download the Waterstones App
Would you like to proceed to the App store to download the Waterstones App?