Wife | Daughter | Self

"From the serenity of a kayaking-on-the-lake moment to fragmenting struggles with self-criticism, Kephart deftly and succinctly captures entire expanses of human experience." — Booklist, Starred Review "A profound meditation on how our most cherished—and most complicated—relationships shape who we are. Kephart's work is a masterclass in memoir." —Megan Stielstra, The Wrong Way to Save Your Life “Kephart’s Wife | Daughter | Self passes the whole of a life through the prism of intimate relations and the result is revelatory: a memoir that assembles itself as we read, until all its parts are shimmering with meaning and that most sought, most elusive treasure is revealed: what it means to be human, and aware.” —Carolyn Forché, What You Have Heard Is True “Wife | Daughter | Self is a riveting, atmospheric dream of a book. It’s a big, complicated portrait of a woman inhabiting the major roles of her life. Sometimes we encounter Beth Kephart's ‘tip-toe self,’ artfully and gracefully telling her story. Other times she’s out there—bold, making noise, ‘piercing the truth.’ But she never settles for the easy answer. She's really just asking bone-deep, tough questions. Questions that turn everything back to her readers so that we can learn how to inhabit our own roles. This memoir is so revelatory, so affecting, that long after you turn the last page, you won’t stop thinking about it.” —Judy Kurtz Goldman, author of Together: A Memoir of a Marriage and a Medical Mishap "Rare and brave and beautifully written, Wife | Daughter | Self is a memoir to savor. Beth Kephart is a jeweler: her words glisten, the emotions shine. This story of marriage, daughterhood, and motherhood, is also the story of an artist—how a woman becomes a writer and how she enters into conversation with the world. This moving work will linger with readers long after the final page." —Diana Abu-Jaber, author of The Language of Baklava "She believes in acute, clear-eyed attention to the small moments. Her stories are bare, stripped down, whittled to their very essence, like one of her husband’s dark, pragmatic vessels. To her father, she says, 'I am here. Are you there?' In each line of prose she poses the question to us and we answer, yes, we are. We are here." —Jacinda Barrett, actress and writer "Opening Beth Kephart's memoir feels akin to stepping into a river of striking clarity and song. With tenacious honesty, Wife | Daughter | Self explores the weight and shape of the ever-deepening bonds we form with those closest to us and how those bonds intertwine with our perceptions of our innermost selves. This book is a journey into a life dedicated to writing and art, one that honors both joy and pain, love and loss. Piercing, lyrical, and wondrously alive with detail, Kephart's sentences sing. I didn't want it to end.” —Chloe Honum, author of Then Winter Handling the Truth: On the Writing of Memoir “A marvelous primer for anyone who would dare to face the furies and write about his or her life. Beth Kephart has read the genre closely, put her own feet to the fire, and distilled the form with all the passion of a great teacher.” —Marie Arana, author of American Chica “A gorgeous meditation on memoir.” —Library Journal, starred review “With infectious passion and hard-won wisdom, Beth Kephart eloquently celebrates the rigors and rewards of the creative process and—equally necessary—the art of crafting a meaningful life.” —Katrina Kenison, author of Magical Journey: An Apprenticeship in Contentment “A self-described ‘memoir autodidact’ and distinguished author’s refreshingly idiosyncratic guide to the art of creative nonfiction.” —Kirkus, starred review “Intense, provocative, endearing, and kind, Handling the Truth recalls Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird (1995). The appendix alone is a reading course not to be missed. Delightful.” —Colleen Mondor, Booklist Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia’s Schuylkill River “Kephart is a master not only of descriptive memory, but of constructing an existential vocabulary. Thus the river is born, becomes aware, is besieged, comes to terms with abuse, half-wishes to be abandoned, and nearly loses hope.” —Nathaniel Popkin, City Paper Additional Praise “Beth Kephart . . . is a gifted, even poetic writer.” —The New York Times Book Review “Kephart’s writing is so clear, so nonpreachy, that you just want to jump in and join her.” —Los Angeles Times Book Review “Richly evocative prose that can only be called masterful . . . a revelation and a feast.” —Andre Dubus III, author of House of Sand and Fog “Writing as brilliantly as she does about love might have been enough even for someone of her intelligence and depth. But in this memoir she demonstrates that she can go further. Kephart is able to generalize from her personal experience to the greater human one.” —Wendy Gimble, Washington Post