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My Name Is Why :Quick Reads 2022
My Name Is Why :Quick Reads 2022
paperback
Published:
14 April, 2022
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Description
SPECIALLY ABRIDGED FOR QUICK READS
How does a government steal a child and then imprison him?
How does it keep it a secret?
This story is how.
This story is true.
My Name Is Why is a true story about growing up in care and fighting to succeed despite the cruelty and failures of the care system.
Prizes
Short-listed for The Biographers' Club Slightly Foxed Best First Biography Award 2019 (UK),Short-listed for Parliamentary Book Awards 2019 (UK),Short-listed for Gordon Burn Prize 2020 (UK)
More Details
| Type | Book |
|---|---|
| ISBN13 | 9781838854645 |
| ISBN10 | 1838854649 |
| Number Of Pages | 160 |
| Item Weight | 143 g |
| Product Dimensions | 129 x 198 x 12 mm |
| Publisher / Reseller | Canongate Books |
| Format | paperback |
| Edition | Main - Quick Reads |
Media Reviews
A lyrical, painful and yet hope-filled memoir . . . Shattering, light-searching * * Observer * *
Searing . . . Unputdownable . . . My Name Is Why is authentic and beautiful, a potential game-changer in public attitudes to children raised in care. It's about bureaucratic cruelty and what happens when love is absent. Don't miss it * * The Times * *
An extraordinary story * * Sunday Times * *
The most amazing thing about this book is that it's not made up. This actually happened. It is an incredible story -- BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH
I have never read a memoir like it. A blistering account of a young life in the hands of neglectful authorities. It's a quest for understanding, for home, for answers. Grips like a thriller. Astounding -- MATT HAIG
The great triumph of this work comes from its author's determination to rail against what he rightly diagnoses as this institutionally endorsed disremembering of black and marginalised experience. It is a searing and unforgettable re-creation of the most brutal of beginnings -- Michael Donkor * * Guardian * *
Utterly devastating and beautiful . . . Breathtakingly written -- DOLLY ALDERTON
This is a deeply moving memoir that speaks with incredible poeticism. A staggering expose of colonial theft and abandonment, this book is grippingly heartbreaking -- DAVID LAMMY
A fascinating memoir . . . So powerful -- ELIF SHAFAK
The engaging transfiguring truth of My Name Is Why is like a baptism of truth - leaving you washed clean of lies and reborn in love. Profound in its kindness, intelligence and unselfish heart, this book is important and unputdownable -- JESSICA HYNES
GoodReads Reviews
Author's Bio
Lemn Sissay is an award-winning writer and broadcaster. He has written collections of poetry and plays. He received an MBE in 2010 and an OBE in 2021 for services to literature and charity. He is Chancellor of the University of Manchester. He is British and Ethiopian.
@lemnsissay | lemnsissay.com