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My Name Is Why
- Author
- Lemn Sissay
- Publisher
- Little, Brown Book Group
- Publish Date
- 14 April 2011
- Run Time
- 5 hours 19 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
What to expect
A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, GUARDIAN, DAILY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER, NEW STATESMAN, METRO, DAILY MAIL, SUNDAY EXPRESS and HERALD
‘A quest for understanding, for home, for answers’ Matt Haig
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 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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Details
- Author
- Lemn Sissay
- Narrator
- Lemn Sissay, Richard Burnip, Zoe Mills
- Duration
- 5 hours 19 minutes
- Release Date
- 14 April 2011
- ISBN
- 9781786893352
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Little, Brown Book Group
- Genre
- Autobiography: general, Memoirs, Published diaries, letters and journals, Social discrimination and social justice
Synopsis
THE NUMBER ONE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERA BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, GUARDIAN, DAILY TELEGRAPH, SUNDAY TIMES, OBSERVER, NEW STATESMAN, METRO, DAILY MAIL, SUNDAY EXPRESS and HERALD‘A quest for understanding, for home, for answers’ Matt HaigHow 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 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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