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Fun Home
Fun Home
Sep 30, 2024 3:30 AM

Author:Alison Bechdel

Fun Home

DISCOVER the BESTSELLING GRAPHIC MEMOIR behind the Olivier Award nominated musical.

'A sapphic graphic treat' The Times

A moving and darkly humorous family tale, pitch-perfectly illustrated with Alison Bechdel's gothic drawings. If you liked Marjane Satrapi's Persepolis you'll love this.

Meet Alison's father, a historic preservation expert and obsessive restorer of the family's Victorian home, a third-generation funeral home director, a high-school English teacher, an icily distant parent, and a closeted homosexual who, as it turns out, is involved with his male students and the family babysitter. When Alison comes out as homosexual herself in late adolescence, the denouement is swift, graphic, and redemptive.

Interweaving between childhood memories, college life and present day, and through narrative that is equally heartbreaking and fiercely funny, Alison looks back on her complex relationship with her father and finds they had more in common than she ever knew.

'A groundbreaking masterpiece' The Independent

'A finely woven blend of yearning and euphoric fantasy' Evening Standard

**ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**

Reviews

A work of passion... It's perhaps one of the best books I've read that explores sexuality and identity

—— Writing Magazine

This book will teach you how to transform the endless questions of childhood into the endless wonder of philosophy

—— Barry Lam , Host and Executive Producer, Hi-Phi Nation podcast, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Vassar College

This delightful book is about philosophy and, ultimately, how to better love your kids. Want to cherish them, respect them, help them learn? Then join them in their natural wonderment and enjoy the philosophical fun

—— Aaron James , bestselling author of Assholes: A Theory and Professor of Philosophy at UC Irvine

This book made me laugh and also think hard, sometimes on the same page. Highly recommended for anyone with kids, especially kids who wonder 'Why?

—— Emily Oster, bestselling author of The Family Firm

Funny and fascinating. Prompted by conversations with his two young sons, Scott Hershovitz walks us through some of philosophy's stickiest questions: Does the universe go on forever? Can we really know anything? Is it ok to use swear words? Should you take revenge? Nasty, Brutish, and Short is an easy-to-read primer on how to discuss these profound topics with children, and how to think about them yourself.

—— Pamela Druckerman, author of Bringing Up Bébé

Hershovitz is a total delight--energetic, compassionate, patient, wise, and very, very funny, even when he is talking about weighty or difficult ideas. I'm grateful to have him as a model for how to talk to my children and how to think alongside them.

—— Merve Emre , author of The Personality Brokers

Thoroughly enjoyable ... fun anecdotes abound ... This sincere and smart account puts to rest the idea that philosophy belongs in academia's ivory tower

—— Publisher’s Weekly (Starred Review)

Equal parts hilarious (for years, Hank kept up a facade of not knowing the alphabet to worry his dad) and profound (4-year-old Rex: 'I think that, for real, God is pretend, and for pretend, God is real') . . . clear and lively . . . A playful yet serious introduction to philosophy.

—— Kirkus

An enormously rich and mind-expanding book, which anyone will gain from reading, especially parents

—— John Carey , The Sunday Times

Witty and self-deprecating, Nasty, Brutish, and Short explores the wonder that young kids bring to their efforts to make sense of the world - and what grown-ups can learn from it.

—— The Christian Science Monitor

Radical... Hershovitz highlights the ways your kids' sometimes awesome and sometimes annoying questions make them tiny versions of Socrates and Sartre ... The point of this book is not to provide a code for living morally. Instead, it's about the process of thinking philosophically

—— Elissa Strauss , Atlantic

Vibrant, funny and provocative

—— Times Literary Supplement

...will make you believe in love again, and also in miracles. And it's so very, very funny.

—— Sarah Dunn

I loved it... Hilarious and necessary. Should be required reading for anyone over forty!

—— Francesca Segal

I love Quilt on Fire! I feel very seen. Christie Watson captures the chaos and uncertainty of midlife exactly... A hilarious romp at times, Quilt on Fire is also a moving and insightful exploration of a transformational inner journey... A joyful book that celebrates our journey back to who we are - women who dare to fly in colour

—— Kathryn Mannix, author of WITH THE END IN MIND

Funny, honest, liberating and wise - Christie Watson has written the equivalent of a laugh-until-you-cry conversation with a best friend

—— Jess Kidd, author of THINGS IN JARS

Hilarious, heartfelt and deeply moving, Christie has written a manifesto for all those of us who need to rediscover a life worth loving. A must-read

—— Kate Bowler, author of EVERYTHING HAPPENS FOR A REASON

A rallying cry for all those confused by their forties, Watson captures midlife with typical fearlessness, humour and style. Her writer's eye never looks away from the truth but seeks only to illuminate it. Every woman should read this book

—— Sarah Langford, author of IN YOUR DEFENCE

Unsettling and life-affirming, funny and sad, unflinchingly honest and incredibly moving, this is a bloody marvellous book, fired with the realisation that love is the only thing that matters, in the end

—— John Sutherland, author of BLUE

Sensational and so necessary. I really needed this book and I definitely won't be the only one. Women everywhere will weep with gratitude

—— Tiffany Atkinson, author of LUMEN

Raw and real and laugh-out-loud funny. So timely... Quilt on Fire is like a supportive friend reaching out a hand, saying it will be okay

—— Karen Angelico, author of EVERYTHING WE ARE

In this bold and beautiful memoir, the author of The Language of Kindness turns her gift for writing to the nub of things to the emotional chaos of midlife; the terror at the changes it wreaks, but also its strange power to deliver clarity. Having weathered this turbulence myself, I think it's the truest account of perimenopause I have yet read

—— Caroline Sanderson , Bookseller

[A] sharp, hilarious, gritty perimenopause memoir - a book for any woman drowning in the uncharted seas of midlife

—— Daily Telegraph, *Summer Reads of 2022*
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