Witty and ruthlessly honest, a unique memoir of writing and womanhood from the twice-Man Booker-shortlisted author.

'Life falls apart. We try to get a grip. We try to hold it together. And then we realize that we don't want to hold it together . . . '

Picking up where Things I Don't Want to Know left off, this short, exhilarating memoir shows a writer in radical flux, facing separation and bereavement, and emerging renewed from the ashes of a former life. Faced with the restrictions of conventional living, she dismantles her life, expands it and puts it back together in a new shape.

Writing as brilliantly as ever about mothers and daughters, about social pressures and the female experience, Deborah Levy confronts a world not designed to accommodate difficult women and ultimately remakes herself in her own image.