Love Like Salt

CHOSEN BY MAGGIE O'FARRELL IN THE GUARDIAN AS ONE OF HER BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR

'It's a slice of a life . . . a complex, intelligent, beautiful, thoughtful, rather lyrical book' -Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love

'A moving treatise on inheritance, not just of a disease like cystic fibrosis, but of our attitudes to living and loving, our sense of cultural and familial landscape, and how these intangibles pass down through generations. Stevenson picks apart her life like a strand of DNA to uncover just how we become the sum of our parts' Daily Telegraph

'A beautiful memoir . . . [Stevenson] is a novelist and a translator and her memoir is about translation in the larger sense. Translating the world is what we all do but she reminds us that one can hope - with a mind as intricately well read and original as hers - to translate misfortune; to absorb and see beyond it . . . Stevenson makes of poetry, fiction and philosophy a protective shawl for her story . . . Although intense she has a carefree wit' Kate Kellaway, Observer

'Motherhood, medicine and music are explored with a spellbinding intensity. It is a beautifully written and entirely honest memoir... Stevenson acknowledges the pain and overwhelming melancholy of being the mother of a sick child but she also manages to wholeheartedly celebrate the life of her family, who are still determined to live as luminous a life as possible, to make a kind of poetry out of the everyday' Eithne Farry Sunday Express

'Stevenson is a writer and musician, and her memoir is distinguished by its ravishing prose and sensitive understanding of the role that loss, misfortune and grief play in the story of our lives' Jane Shilling, Daily Mail

'Love Like Salt is a human triumph ... it's all told in the most mesmerising of words, no adjective is extraneous and Love Like Salt flows with poetic precision ... Ultimately, Love Like Salt follows in the hallowed footsteps of Helen MacDonald's brilliant H is for Hawk or Cathy Rentzenbrink's The Last Act of Love. These are not misery memoirs but reminders that life comes in all shades - that in the darkest moments, beauty and humour can be found' Francesca Brown, Stylist

'Did Clara taste salty when I kissed her? She did. She tasted of mermaids, of the sea.'

Love Like Salt is a deeply affecting memoir, beautifully and intelligently written. It is about mothers and daughters, music and illness, genes and inheritance, writing and story-telling. It is about creating joy from the hand you've been dealt and following its lead - in this case to rural France, w

“Affecting and beautifully written maternal memoir which muses on music and illness, genes and inheritance, writing and storytelling. At its heart is the story of the author's eldest daughter Clara, diagnosed with cystic fibrosis by a consultant who initially tells Stevenson to taste the tell-tale level of salt on her baby's skin, which characterises the disease. As her daughter grows up towards an uncertain future, Stevenson's mother begins to descend into dementia. Partly set in France, it's an ultimately uplifting book about resilience and living the best life you can, even in the shadow of illness; and creating joy from the hand you've been dealt”

Affecting and beautifully written maternal memoir which muses on music and illness, genes and inheritance, writing and storytelling . . . an ultimately uplifting book about resilience and living the best life you can, even in the shadow of illness; and creating joy from the hand you've been dealt - Bookseller, 'editor's choice'

Motherhood, medicine and music are explored with a spellbinding intensity. This memoir is beautifully written and entirely emotionally honest . . . a celebration of a family who are determined to live as luminous a life as possible, to make a kind of poetry out of the everyday - Psychologies, 'Book of the Month'

An extraordinarily beautiful and mysterious book about parenthood and the random blows that life deals us, as well as the quest to belong, the life of the mind and, ultimately, love. And what glorious prose: Helen Stevenson has a conjuror's knack of seeming to throw everything in, and creating not a jumble, but something that makes absolute, awe-inspiring sense

A touching memoir about motherhood and illness that teaches powerful lessons about resilience and finding joy where you can - Good Housekeeping

This memoir is full of seeming tricks from fairy stories that turn out to have the weight of science behind them - Daily Telegraph

Helen Stevenson lives in Somerset with her husband and two daughters. She is the author of three novels and a memoir, Instructions for Visitors. She translates French fiction and teaches piano. Stevenson studied modern languages at Somerville College, Oxford.

'A beautifully written and entirely emotionally honest memoir, describing exactly what it's like to live in the shadow of cystic fibrosis . . . Stevenson acknowledges the pain and overwhelming melancholy of being the mother of a sick child but she also manages to wholeheartedly celebrate the life of her family, who are still determined to live as luminous a life as possible, to make a kind of poetry out of the everyday' Eithne Farry, Sunday Express ** 'Told in the most mesmerising of words, no adjective is extraneous and Love Like Salt flows with poetic precision . . . Ultimately, Love Like Salt follows in the hallowed footsteps of Helen MacDonald's brilliant H is for Hawk or Cathy Rentzenbrink's The Last Act of Love . These are not misery memoirs but reminders that life comes in all shades - that in the darkest moments, beauty and humour can be found' Francesca Brown, Stylist *** 'This memoir is full of seeming tricks from fairy stories that turn out to have the weight of science behind them' Claudia FitzHerbert, Daily Telegraph **** 'An extraordinarily beautiful and mysterious book about parenthood and the random blows that life deals us, as well as the quest to belong, the life of the mind and, ultimately, love' Julie Myerson 'A moving treatise on inheritance, not just of a disease like cystic fibrosis, but of our attitudes to living and loving, our sense of cultural and familial landscape, and how these intangibles pass down through generations. Stevenson picks apart her life like a strand of DNA to uncover just how we become the sum of our parts' Victoria Lambert, Daily Telegraph

CHOSEN BY MAGGIE O'FARRELL IN THE GUARDIAN AS ONE OF HER BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR 'It's a slice of a life . . . a complex, intelligent, beautiful, thoughtful, rather lyrical book' -Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love 'A moving treatise on inheritance, not just of a disease like cystic fibrosis, but of our attitudes to living and loving, our sense of cultural and familial landscape, and how these intangibles pass down through generations. Stevenson picks apart her life like a strand of DNA to uncover just how we become the sum of our parts' Daily Telegraph 'A beautiful memoir . . . [Stevenson] is a novelist and a translator and her memoir is about translation in the larger sense. Translating the world is what we all do but she reminds us that one can hope - with a mind as intricately well read and original as hers - to translate misfortune; to absorb and see beyond it . . . Stevenson makes of poetry, fiction and philosophy a protective shawl for her story . . . Although intense she has a carefree wit' Kate Kellaway, Observer 'Motherhood, medicine and music are explored with a spellbinding intensity. It is a beautifully written and entirely honest memoir... Stevenson acknowledges the pain and overwhelming melancholy of being the mother of a sick child but she also manages to wholeheartedly celebrate the life of her family, who are still determined to live as luminous a life as possible, to make a kind of poetry out of the everyday' Eithne Farry Sunday Express 'Stevenson is a writer and musician, and her memoir is distinguished by its ravishing prose and sensitive understanding of the role that loss, misfortune and grief play in the story of our lives' Jane Shilling, Daily Mail 'Love Like Salt is a human triumph ... it's all told in the most mesmerising of words, no adjective is extraneous and Love Like Salt flows with poetic precision ... Ultimately, Love Like Salt follows in the hallowed footsteps of Helen MacDonald's brilliant H is for Hawk or Cathy Rentzenbrink's The Last Act of Love . These are not misery memoirs but reminders that life comes in all shades - that in the darkest moments, beauty and humour can be found' Francesca Brown, Stylist 'Did Clara taste salty when I kissed her? She did. She tasted of mermaids, of the sea.' Love Like Salt is a deeply affecting memoir, beautifully and intelligently written. It is about mothers and daughters, music and illness, genes and inheritance, writing and story-telling. It is about creating joy from the hand you've been dealt and following its lead - in this case to rural France, w

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