Published: 29/08/2024
From the celebrated author of Summerwater and The Fell comes a scalpel-sharp memoir of girlhood and young womanhood and how Moss was tormented by the conflicting aspirations and expectations imposed upon her.
From one of Britain's best contemporary novelists, My Good Bright Wolf is a memoir about thinking and reading, eating and not eating, about privilege and scarcity, about the relationships that form us and the long tentacles of childhood.
In the household of Sarah Moss's childhood she learnt that the female body and mind were battlegrounds. 1970s austerity and second-wave feminism came together: she must keep herself slim but never be vain, she must be intelligent but never angry, she must be able to cook and sew and make do and mend, but know those skills were frivolous. Clever girls should be ambitious but women must restrain themselves. Women had to stay small.
Years later, her self-control had become dangerous, and Sarah found herself in A&E, forced to reckon with all that she had denied her hard-working body and furiously turning mind.
My Good Bright Wolf navigates contested memories of girlhood, the chorus of relentless and controlling voices that dogged Sarah’s every thought, and the writing and books in which she could run free. Beautiful, audacious, moving and very funny, this memoir is a remarkable exercise in the way a brain turns on itself, and then finds a way out.
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
ISBN: 2928377275778
Number of pages: 320
Dimensions: 216 x 135 mm
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“My Good Bright Wolf: A Memoir”
An extraordinarily powerful and moving read. This memoir by Sarah Moss was compelling from start to finish.
The author is the first to admit that she had many advantages growing up but with self esteem issues that...
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“Astonishing, Beautiful and Brutal Work”
Devastating work. Powerful, poetic, and stripped down to the bone of what you can tolerate as a reader, which is a magnificent achievement given the subject matter. This is hard to read and there were times when I... More
“Compulsive reading”
I don’t often read memoirs but I enjoyed Sarah Moss’s novel Summerwater a few years ago so was curious to learn more about her. I found it compulsive and felt a little voyeuristic reading it, while admiring the daring... More
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