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My Name Is Why: A Memoir

Author: Sissay, Lemn
Binding: Hardback
Pages: 208
Pub Date: 26/04/2019
Publisher: CANONGATE
ISBN: 9781786892348
Availability: In Stock
Price-Match is available in-store for recommended titles in CCCU module handbooks
Quick overview A memoir with a message - about growing up in care and finding hope, determination and creativity - from British poet and national treasure Lemn Sissay
£16.99
£6.99
Product description

THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERSHORTLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE AND WINNER OF NON-FICTION CATEGORY OF THE INDIE BOOK AWARDS

'EXTRAORDINARY' The Times
'BEAUTIFUL' Dolly Alderton
'SHATTERING' Observer
'INCREDIBLE' Benjamin Zephaniah
'UNPUTDOWNABLE' Sunday Times
'ASTOUNDING' Matt Haig
'POWERFUL' Elif Shafak

At the age of seventeen, after a childhood in a foster 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. This is Lemn's story: a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph.

Sissay reflects on his childhood, 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.

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