{"product_id":"9780008300616_the-fragments-of-my-father-a-memoir-of-madness-love-and-being-a-carer","title":"The Fragments of my Father: A memoir of madness, love and being a carer","description":"\u003cp\u003e\n          \u003cstrong\u003eA NEW STATESMAN BOOK OF THE YEAR\u003c\/strong\u003e\n        \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n          \u003cstrong\u003eIn the vein of the Costa-winning \u003cem\u003eDadland\u003c\/em\u003e, with the biographical elements of \u003cem\u003eH is for Hawk\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eThe Fragments of my Father\u003c\/em\u003e is a powerful and poignant memoir about parents and children, freedom and responsibility, madness and creativity and what it means to be a carer.\u003c\/strong\u003e\n        \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n          \u003cstrong\u003eSHORTLISTED FOR THE BARBELLION PRIZE\u003c\/strong\u003e\n        \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\n          \u003cem\u003eMy life had been suspended, as though I had inhaled and was still waiting to let out that gasp of breath. I set aside my dreams for a future time when life might be normal again. But that night, on my mother’s birthday, as I sat and watched the sky turn from blue to black, I wondered for the first time if it ever would …\u003c\/em\u003e\n        \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThere were holes in Sam Mills’s life when she was growing up – times when her dad was just absent, for reasons she didn’t understand. As she grew older, she began to make up stories about the periods when he wasn’t around: that he’d been abducted, spirited away and held captive by a mysterious tribe who lived at the bottom of the garden. The truth – that he suffers from a rare form of paranoid schizophrenia, and was hospitalised intermittently – slowly came into focus, and that focus became pin-sharp in 2012, when Sam’s mother died and Sam was left as his primary carer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this powerful, poignant memoir Sam triangulates her own experience with the stories of two other carers, one she admires and one, on some days, she fears she might become: Leonard Woolf, husband to Virginia and F Scott Fitzgerald, husband to Zelda, and a man whose personality made him ill-equipped – in a great many ways – to be a carer for his troubled wife.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eA mesmerising blend of literary biography and memoir \u003cem\u003eThe Fragments of My Father\u003c\/em\u003e is a compelling and moving account of what it means to be a carer.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn The Fragments of My Father, Sam Mills explores the complexities of relationships, particularly the bond between a father and child, and the impact of disabilities on family dynamics. The narrative is a poignant reflexion on grief, bereavement, and the challenges of eldercare, making it a compelling autobiography.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFor fans of Elizabeth N. Anionwu (Dreams From My Mother), Ray Connolly (Being John Lennon), Kate Mosse (An Extra Pair of Hands), Katherine May (The Electricity of Every Living Thing), and Anna Wilson (A Place for Everything).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Sam Mills","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46889590784149,"sku":"9780008300616","price":35.99,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0484\/3175\/9509\/files\/9780008300616.png?v=1777422910","url":"https:\/\/harpercollins.com.au\/products\/9780008300616_the-fragments-of-my-father-a-memoir-of-madness-love-and-being-a-carer","provider":"HarperCollins AU","version":"1.0","type":"link"}