EBOOK
About
SHORTLISTED FOR THE JQ WINGATE, 2017
My mother, my family and Judaism are nested inside each other. I am Jewish and always Jewish; it's analogous with family, however hard it is, and however strained, it can never be disavowed... I remain, as my therapist put it, 'enmeshed', all tangled up in the family hoard. This book has been both a continuation of my conversations with them, and an attempt to untangle myself.
This is Joanne's account of coming to terms with her brother's suicide and through that process, the entirety of her family life. In Small Pieces Joanne explores her childhood, her Jewishness and her mother's death as well as that of her brother.
The life and family Joanne describes is a complex combination of conflicting influences - both scientific and literary; Jewish and humanist impulses; and middle America and North London settings.
Small Pieces is a beautiful and searingly honest meditation on family and faith.
My mother, my family and Judaism are nested inside each other. I am Jewish and always Jewish; it's analogous with family, however hard it is, and however strained, it can never be disavowed... I remain, as my therapist put it, 'enmeshed', all tangled up in the family hoard. This book has been both a continuation of my conversations with them, and an attempt to untangle myself.
This is Joanne's account of coming to terms with her brother's suicide and through that process, the entirety of her family life. In Small Pieces Joanne explores her childhood, her Jewishness and her mother's death as well as that of her brother.
The life and family Joanne describes is a complex combination of conflicting influences - both scientific and literary; Jewish and humanist impulses; and middle America and North London settings.
Small Pieces is a beautiful and searingly honest meditation on family and faith.
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Reviews
"Small Pieces is beautiful, incredibly moving and, at times, extremely funny."
Guardian
"Gripping, heart-breaking, challenging - this memoir about a family in crisis is a must-read."
Sophie Hannah
"After Joanne Limburg's brother committed suicide, she and her mother flew to the American midwest to bury him. Only there was no body to bury because he'd already been cremated. This is the starting point for a journey of reparation, to honour her brother's memory and the Jewish religion they both abandoned. Limburg re-treads the childhood that she and Julian shared, fearlessly confronting her lo
Marina Benjamin