Fierce Appetites
Lessons from my year of untamed thinking
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:2nd Mar '23
Should be back in stock very soon
This captivating book, Fierce Appetites, intertwines personal loss with historical narratives, exploring themes of grief, love, and the human experience with depth and humor.
In Fierce Appetites, medieval historian Elizabeth Boyle explores profound themes through the lens of her personal experiences. Each day, she faces the loss of a beloved father, the departure of a lover, and the complexities that arise as she turns forty. These intertwined events lead her to reflect deeply on life, love, and the inevitable challenges that accompany them. By immersing herself in the literature that has shaped her career, Boyle seeks to make sense of her grief and the universal questions that resonate through time.
The narrative is a rich tapestry of historical insights and personal anecdotes, as Boyle draws connections between ancient stories and modern dilemmas. She tackles topics such as addiction, family breakdown, motherhood, and the intricacies of human relationships with unflinching honesty and compassion. The book balances dark humor with poignant reflections, making it both engaging and thought-provoking.
Fierce Appetites stands out as a unique exploration of the human condition, presenting an intimate look into the mind of a groundbreaking scholar. Through her writing, Boyle not only shares her own journey but also invites readers to contemplate their own lives and the stories that shape them. This captivating work serves as a reminder of the resilience of the human spirit and the power of literature to illuminate our experiences.
A book of blazing honesty that allows all the gorgeous complexity of the past into our messy present to remind us we've always been like this -- Max Porter
Really REALLY good -- Siobhán McSweeney
Boyle has the skill to move us between the raw and the refined, the mind and the body, the past and the present, the mundane and the marvellous without ever losing control of her dark materials -- Fintan O'Toole
An astounding piece of writing -- David Perry
Just as brilliant and hard to define as everyone says it is. You should read it. You will both learn things and be entertained -- Jan Carson
An eloquent plea for the value of curiosity and the life of the mind, standing up the robustness of scholarship against the frailty of individuals, the resilience of myth against brittle daily preoccupations. It's an agile story, irreverent, capacious and constantly surprising: like nothing else you will read -- Hilary Mantel
Pure nectar for the imagination, and it's my book of 2022 -- Clodagh Finn * Irish Examiner *
Bracingly honest, fiery, funny, scholarly,Fierce Appetites really is a wildly good book -- Hilary Fannin
I just love it -- John Connolly
Unusual, arresting and genuinely enriching -- Sharon Arbuthnot * Irish Times *
Highly original . . . engagingly candid [and] thought-provoking -- Martina Devlin * Irish Independent *
I loved this luminous, radical book about bodies in time. It is a deeply personal history, that simultaneously brings medieval myth and poetry to breathing, bleeding life. An education for the mind and the heart -- Clare Pollard
Fiercely smart, strange, surprising -- Jennifer O'Connell * Irish Times *
Extremely intriguing . . . I found myself completely absorbed. Fascinating -- Ryan Tubridy
Everything is illuminated, magnified, revisioned: sexual desire, motherhood, family. Her writing is unorthodox, unnerving, and very exciting -- Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure for Sleep
An outstanding achievement. Fierce Appetites defies easy categorization, is brilliantly written and simply deserves to be read -- Darach Ó Séaghdha
I absolutely loved this utterly original book. Immersing myself in Elizabeth Boyle's considerable brain was a true privilege, and the way she uses medieval narratives to unpick her own present was endlessly surprising and beautiful. I read it in two sittings, devouring her perspective on life, love, loss -- Clover Stroud
[A] marvellous, astonishing, funny, moving, wise, reflective, deeply scholarly, fascinating book -- Aidan O'Sullivan
All twelve essays are freighted with that fierceness the title trumpets * RTÉ Guide *
This book is extraordinary . . . a wonderful work of women's memoir -- Sinéad Crowley
ISBN: 9780241992432
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 21mm
Weight: 245g
352 pages