In this extraordinary memoir, Gwyneth Lewis, the inaugural National Poet of Wales, recounts her toxic upbringing at the hands of her controlling, coercive mother. It is a book that Gwyneth has been preparing to write all her life, in diaries that she’s kept since childhood.

In these journals, she interrogates the emotionally abusive mother/daughter relationship, in great pain but determined to find a way through. The result is a book that Gwyneth co-writes with her younger self, an unexpected and life-saving dialogue through time. Metaphors of haunting intensity help her confront what happened to her; quotations from art and literature help to guide and steady her. Nightshade Mother is a book about the power of art, language and, ultimately, about homecoming after a lifetime of exile from herself It is a profoundly moving and beautiful work; questing, forgiving and loving in its approach.


Format Inbunden Omfång 240 sidor Språk Engelska Förlag University of Wales Press Utgivningsdatum 2024-09-26 ISBN 9781915279903