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My Good Bright Wolf

A Memoir

Sarah Moss author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Pan Macmillan

Published:29th Aug '24

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My Good Bright Wolf cover

This memoir by Sarah Moss delves into the complexities of female identity, exploring body image, mental health, and the transformative power of literature.

In My Good Bright Wolf, Sarah Moss offers a poignant memoir that explores the complexities of the female experience, particularly the struggles surrounding body image and self-worth. Growing up in a household where the female body and mind were often viewed as battlegrounds, she navigates the conflicting messages of the 1970s—where second-wave feminism clashed with societal expectations of women. Moss reflects on the pressures to maintain a slim figure while being discouraged from vanity, and the expectation to be intelligent yet restrained. This tension shaped her formative years and led to a dangerous relationship with food and self-control.

As she recounts her journey, Moss reveals how her teenage battle with anorexia resurfaced, leading to a medical emergency that forced her to confront the denial surrounding her body and mind. Through vivid storytelling, she shares the impact of childhood memories and the controlling voices that influenced her thoughts. Yet, amidst the struggle, she finds solace in literature, highlighting the liberating power of reading and writing.

My Good Bright Wolf is not just a memoir about personal challenges; it is a celebration of resilience and the ability to reclaim one's narrative. With humor and honesty, Moss illustrates how the act of thinking and reading can provide a pathway to healing and self-acceptance, making this book a remarkable exploration of what it means to be a woman in today's world.

There’s something beautifully wild and dangerous about this book . . . My Good Bright Wolf is a howl both exquisitely anguished and profound. It’s further proof that Moss is a towering figure in the contemporary literary landscape. -- Lucy Scholes, The Telegraph
I've never read anything quite like My Good Bright Wolf. Part memoir, part confessional, part dark and feverish fairytale, Moss explores her subject matter with characteristic attentiveness and unflinching honesty. This book invites the reader to step into the narrator's oftentimes uncomfortable shoes and, in doing so, confront what it means to be a woman, an artist, a human being, trying to find a way to be. -- Jan Carson, author of The Raptures
A counterspell to the dark enchantment of anorexia, and an utterly original testimonial of great candour and eloquence, hope and redemption. An unflinching take on feminist and literary history, the indignities of illness, and the vulnerabilities of childhood. Sarah Moss does it again. -- Gavin Francis
Devastating, funny and full of brilliant insights. This is a brave book, but more than that it is generous. It has made me think about how incredibly porous we all are: to our families, to society, to culture, to each other. That's why this book is important: it asks us to take responsibility for our impact on each other. -- Melissa Harrison
Sarah Moss brings her trademark subtlety and sense of the ominous to her harrowing memoir...[A] complex, textured story * The New York Times *
Defiant in its anger and humour, My Good Bright Wolf is a compulsive and compelling story of how hard it is to break free of the punishing narratives around women's bodies and how easy it is to nearly lose yourself to them. And it is also a story of how words - painful and beautiful, wolf-sharp words - can be a way back. -- Emilie Pine
Sarah Moss’s gorgeous, puzzle box of a memoir, My Good Bright Wolf, runs far and fast through the heart of memory, our love of stories, and the beautiful blur between the two. -- Samantha Hunt, author of The Unwritten Book
A compelling portrait of a sensitive, deeply intelligent woman struggling to reconcile a difficult emotional past with the misogyny that tainted the social and intellectual environments she inhabited. Rich, complex reading. * Kirkus *
A stirring and singular achievement * Publishers Weekly *
A thought-provoking, tender midlife memoir . . . a brilliant mind * The Guardian *
An observational masterpiece, littered with sentences you want to read again and again * The i *
Brilliant . . . brave, worthy and fierce * The Irish Times *
Full of daring . . . revelatory * The Observer *

ISBN: 9781035035816

Dimensions: 224mm x 145mm x 31mm

Weight: 424g

320 pages