The Home Child

One of the outstanding books of this year... Although this is a historical tale its resonance is timeless * Sunday Times *
A story that is not only heartbreaking but also, essentially, true ... [The Home Child] is a profound act of witness to a long injustice, and a beautifully crafted conjuring of a life lived as truly as possible * Guardian, Book of the Day *
Berry's novel in verse is based on an aunt she never met... It's vivid, compassionate and, a century after her forced migration, makes little Eliza Showell's voice heard at last * Financial Times, *Summer Reads of 2023* *
Liz Berry has given the world another ground-breaking collection of poems. These verses are sensitive and tender, yet the language is real and unflinching * Benjamin Zephaniah *
An extraordinarywork of imagination . . . Poetic virtuosity is combined with novelistic story-telling as we follow the unfolding fate of Eliza Showell . . . An exquisite book * Hannah Lowe *
Only Liz Berry could write such raw and staggeringly beautiful poems * Fiona Benson *
'Magnificent . . . She takes us on a heartbreaking journey, and she persuades us to examine our own past, whoever we are.' * Ian McMillan *
One of the most anticipatedsecond collections of the decade... Enchanting... Berry combines the historical and the personal, the local and international, weaving them into a story that has its own accumulating emotional force * Irish Times *
A triumph. A novel in verse, an elegy, a profound act of witness . . . Eliza is brought to such tangible and complex life I feel as though I've met her * Luke Kennard *
'One of my favourite books of all time. Every collection by Liz Berry is a treasure, but this one struck even deeper. It has universal reach to the ongoing exploitation of earth's poor. * Pascale Petit *
A haunting, deeply compelling narrative, that holds the reader tight to the animal anchor of the natural world, and speaks in the unique idiolect of its own genealogy * Andrew McMillan, author of PHYSICAL *
The Home Child is so beautiful . . . [Liz] honours Home Children & with a eerie magic ventriloquises her ancestor Eliza Showell * Amy Key *
'A remarkable collection . . . A thought-provoking weave of fact and imagination . . . It describes in her own words how her life is transformed, and in doing so, transforms ours' * John Glenday *
Deeply moving. A graceful, delicate book, stunning in its emotional depth... I know I'll return to it many times in the future * Megan Hunter, author of THE END WE START FROM *
There is something of Hardy's heartbreak note to these poems . . . The Home Child isboth blues and rhapsody; Liz Berry's musicality and gift for the telling image matched by her sensitivity to and love for her subject. * Declan Ryan *
Deeply moving, unforgettable. * Doireann Ní Ghríofa, author of A Ghost in the Throat *
'Liz Berry's poetry is spell-work . . . Her voice carves creatures out of words, and sets them dancing.' * Jen Campbell *
Liz Berry ... sings of love, loss, grief, work, wonder, hope. To say I love this, the quiet power of it, would understate * Jackie Morris, author of The Unwinding *
'Liz Berry's poems are captivating and charged with her characteristically rich and sensuous Black Country language. The Home Child brings to light the devastating history of forced child migration in the service of Empire and is a deeply moving tribute to the author's great aunt. This is a book that should be on the curriculum' * Naush Sabah *
Liz Berry achieves a fusion of poetry and fiction as gripping as any thriller... Inspired by the true story of her great aunt...this compelling novel in verse is a moving portrait of a girl who will never see her family again * Daily Mail *