My Name Is Why

(Paperback, Main)

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Description

How does a government steal a child and then imprison him
How does it keep it a secret
This story is how.

At the age of seventeen, after a childhood in a fostered family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. He learned that his real name was not Norman. It was Lemn Sissay. He was British and Ethiopian. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth.

Here Sissay recounts his life story. It is a story of neglect and determination. Misfortune and hope. Cruelty and triumph.

Sissay reflects on a childhood in care, self-expression and Britishness, and in doing so explores the institutional care system, race, family and the meaning of home. Written with all the lyricism and power you would expect from one of the nation's best-loved poets, this moving, frank and timely memoir is the result of a life spent asking questions, and a celebration of the redemptive power of creativity.

Reviews

A lyrical, painful and yet hope-filled memoir . . . Shattering, light-searching * * Observer * *
Searing . . . Unputdownable . . . My Name Is Why is authentic and beautiful, a potential game-changer in public attitudes to children raised in care. It's about bureaucratic cruelty and what happens when love is absent. Don't miss it * * The Times * *
An extraordinary story * * Sunday Times * *
The most amazing thing about this book is that it's not made up. This actually happened. It is an incredible story -- BENJAMIN ZEPHANIAH
I have never read a memoir like it. A blistering account of a young life in the hands of neglectful authorities. It's a quest for understanding, for home, for answers. Grips like a thriller. Astounding -- MATT HAIG
The great triumph of this work comes from its author's determination to rail against what he rightly diagnoses as this institutionally endorsed disremembering of black and marginalised experience. It is a searing and unforgettable re-creation of the most brutal of beginnings -- Michael Donkor * * Guardian * *
Utterly devastating and beautiful . . . Breathtakingly written -- DOLLY ALDERTON
This is a deeply moving memoir that speaks with incredible poeticism. A staggering expos of colonial theft and abandonment, this book is grippingly heartbreaking -- DAVID LAMMY
A fascinating memoir . . . So powerful -- ELIF SHAFAK
The engaging transfiguring truth of My Name Is Why is like a baptism of truth - leaving you washed clean of lies and reborn in love. Profound in its kindness, intelligence and unselfish heart, this book is important and unputdownable -- JESSICA HYNES

Author Bio

Lemn Sissay is an award-winning writer and popular broadcaster as well as being the author of five poetry books. He was made an Honorary Doctor of Letters by the University of Huddersfield and the University of Manchester. He was awarded an MBE by the Queen for services to literature. He was the official poet for the London 2012 Olympics. He has worked throughout the world and is patron of the Letterbox Club, supporting children in care. His Landmark poems can be found in London, Manchester, Huddersfield and Addis Ababa. In 2015 he was appointed Chancellor of the University of Manchester. He is British and Ethiopian.

@lemnsissay | lemnsissay.com