Will This House Last Forever: 'Raw, devastating, beautifully formed' Daisy Johnson
(Paperback)
Available Formats
Paperback
Published: 29th June 2021
Hardback
Published: 26th October 2021
Paperback
Published: 13th September 2022
Publishing Details
Will This House Last Forever: 'Raw, devastating, beautifully formed' Daisy Johnson
By (Author) Xanthi Barker
Headline Publishing Group
Tinder Press
29th June 2021
United Kingdom
Classifications
Physical Properties
Paperback
368
Width 153mm, Height 234mm
Description
'It felt such a privilege to read this book. Raw, devastating, beautifully formed. Let's keep our eye on Barker' Daisy Johnson
'Wonderful - an elegy of sorts, yet wholly fresh and unsentimental' Sara BaumeWhen Xanthi Barker's father died when she was in her mid twenties, she could make no sense of her grief for a man who had been absent for most of her life. Her father, poet Sebastian Barker, had left Xanthi, her mother and her brother to pursue writing and a new relationship, when Xanthi was a baby. Growing up she had always struggled to reconcile his extravagant affection - a rocking horse crafted from scavenged wood, the endless stream of poems and drawings and letters, conversations that spiralled from the structure of starlight to philosophy to Bruce Springsteen - with the fact that he could not be depended upon for more everyday things. Though theirs was a relationship defined by departures, he always returned, so why should this farewell be any different, or more finalWILL THIS HOUSE LAST FOREVER is a heartfelt and wholly original memoir about the pain of having to come to terms with a parent's mortality, the way grief so utterly defies logic, and about learning to see the flaws in those that we love, and let them go.Reviews
I loved this delicate and engaging story of love and grief so much that it made me wish I was still a bookseller so I could press it into the hands of all my customers... It's so honest and beautifully written -- Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of THE LAST ACT OF LOVE
Barker's attempt to triangulate a void is haunting. Yet even from the depths her memories glow with life, the writing gleams with precision -- Rhik Samadder, author of I NEVER SAID I LOVED YOU
The story of a relationship defined by departures... arresting and beautifully written * The Bookseller (Editor's Choice, June) *
Conveys brilliantly the maddening experience of loving someone who is absent when present and present when absent... I was drawn in by her intense prose. A great new talent -- Jill Hopper, author of THE MAHOGANY POD
Author Bio
Xanthi Barker was born in London where she still lives. Her fiction has been published in Litro and MsLexia, and shortlisted for the Fish Prize. 'Paradoxical', the first chapter of WILL THIS HOUSE LAST FOREVER, was highly commended in the 2018 Spread the Word Life Writing Prize. Her novelette ONE THING is published by Open Pen.
