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Once in a House on Fire
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In her engrossing memoir, Once in a House on Fire, Andrea Ashworth recalls growing up poor in a violent English household during the 1970s and 1980s. Ashworth's father drowned when she was just 5. Her mother then married a man who beat her frequently and made life miserable for the whole family. When Ashworth's mother finally got rid of him, she married a small-time criminal who also soon became violent. Throughout her childhood, the author struggled to protect her little sisters from their stepfathers and kept the family going when their mother could not function because of her injuries, depressions, and blinding headaches. Ashworth and her family moved around quite a bit, often living in other people's houses, sleeping in cots or on floors. They all suffered from the emotional and economic instability of their situation. Ashworth recalls the sunglasses her mother wore through cloudy dark English winters to conceal her bruised eyes. She also remembers sneaking out of the house one day to run through a rich neighborhood, where she paused occasionally to open the mailboxes of the wealthy and smell their comfort and safety.
About the Author:
Although Ashworth's story is all about loneliness and love gone wrong, the surprising thing is that this book is not always terribly sad-- there are interludes when the children have fun and in those sunny moments it seems probable that all of them, especially Andrea, will survive more or less intact. Ashworth recalls the details of her childhood vividly, in brief scenes. In one of those scenes, two sisters race down a cobbled street at breakneck speed. Each of them has one roller skate on--they are sharing. Ashworth's writing is crisp, her dialogue right to the point. This book is reminiscent of Frank Conroy's Stop-Time and Tobias Wolff's This Boy's Life, both classic memoirs of adolescence. --Jill Marquis
ANDREA ASHWORTHwas born in Manchester in 1969. She now lives in Los Angeles with her husband and daughter.
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- PublisherPicador Classic
- Publication date2015
- ISBN 10 1447275128
- ISBN 13 9781447275121
- BindingPaperback
- Number of pages354
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Once in a House on Fire: Picador Classic (Picador Classics) [Soft Cover ]
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Once in a House on Fire (Paperback)
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: new. Paperback. When our stepfather staggered home reeking of whisky, ceramic hit the wall. We got used to the smash and the next-day stain, but eventually the wallpaper began to fade. For Andrea Ashworth, home is not a place of comfort and solace, but of violence and fear. Her father died when she was five, leaving her close-knit, loving family to battle with poverty, abuse and the long shadow of depression. But from the ashes of 1970s Manchester and the hardships of her coming-of-age in the late 1980s, Andrea finds the courage to rise. Written with eye-opening honesty, rare beauty and intense power, Once in a House on Fire is a ground-breaking memoir, endearing in its humour and compassion, and life-affirming in its portrait of terrible circumstances triumphantly overcome. A ground-breaking memoir Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability. Seller Inventory # 9781447275121
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Once in a House on Fire
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Book Description Condition: New. pp. 368. Seller Inventory # 322517061
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Once in a House on Fire: Picador Classic
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Book Description Paperback. Condition: Brand New. 368 pages. In Stock. Seller Inventory # __1447275128
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Book Description Condition: New. With an introduction by Eimear McBride. A devastatingly powerful, moving and uplifting memoir - now a classic of its genre - that inspired others to tell their own true life stories. Series: Picador Classics. Num Pages: 368 pages. BIC Classification: BGA; BM. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 198 x 130 x 24. Weight in Grams: 304. . 2015. Paperback. . . . . Seller Inventory # V9781447275121
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