The Terrible
A Storyteller's Memoir
Winner of the PEN Ackerley Prize • Longlisted for the 2019 PEN Open Book Award
“Devastating and lyrical.” —The New York Times
“Suspenseful and affecting.” —The New Yorker
From the celebrated poet behind bone, a collection of poems that tells a story of coming-of-age, uncovering the cruelty and beauty of the world, going under, and finding redemption
Through her signature sharp, searing poems, this is the story of Yrsa Daley-Ward and all the things that happened. “Even the terrible things. And God, there were terrible things.” It’s about her childhood in the northwest of England with her beautiful, careworn mother Marcia; the man formerly known as Dad (half fun, half frightening); and her little brother Roo, who sees things written in the stars.
It’s also about the surreal magic…
Yrsa Daley-Ward is a writer and poet of mixed Jamaican and Nigerian heritage and is the author of The How, bone, and The Terrible, and the winner of the PEN Ackerley Prize. She splits her time between Brooklyn and London