Author(s): Maggie O'Farrell

Biography

AS SELECTED FOR THE ZOE BALL BOOKCLUB, A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE SUNDAY TIMES, THE TIMES, GUARDIAN, IRISH TIMES, OBSERVER, RED and THE TELEGRAPH.*SHORTLISTED FOR THE PEN ACKERLEY PRIZE FOR MEMOIR AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY 2018*

I AM, I AM, I AM is a memoir with a difference - the unputdownable story of an extraordinary woman's life in near-death experiences. Insightful, inspirational, gorgeously written, it is a book to be read at a sitting, a story you finish newly conscious of life's fragility, determined to make every heartbeat count.

A childhood illness she was not expected to survive. A teenage yearning to escape that nearly ended in disaster. A terrifying encounter on a remote path. A mismanaged labour in an understaffed hospital.

Shocking, electric, unforgettable, this is the extraordinary memoir from Costa Novel-Award winner and Sunday Timesbestselling author Maggie O'Farrell. It is a book to make you question yourself. What would you do if your life was in danger, and what would you stand to lose?

CONSTANT READER STAFF REVIEW: JULIA

Maggie O’Farrell has left fiction (temporarily I hope!) to write I Am, I Am, I Am, a memoir with a precise angle. This is set out in the subtitle, Seventeen Brushes with Death. Though a change in genre, the tone is similar to that of her fiction, restrained yet imbued with emotion.

The brushes with death she describes are, in some cases, vividly real and realised as such on the page. Others are sliding door moments, a near miss outlined in typically restrained but insightful language. Her focus on her own mortality invites us to think of our own, of the myriad close shaves we may encounter, the lucky escapes or serious illness or accident overcome.

That she manages to convey so much employing such seemingly simple language is thanks in part to the eloquent and imaginative metaphors she includes - “the cochineal shock of what appeared in the syringe.” She has no need for overblown adjectives when her depiction of events is so clear.

Her tone is gentle but her message insistent, allowing the reader to grasp the solemnity of a situation, or acknowledging the complexity of life, without the use of histrionics. She manages to draw the reader in, compelling us to want more - more detail, more stories, more beautiful writing. The construct keeps things fresh by taking a random approach in terms of time rather than a linear tract. The final chapter though, about her daughter’s severe eczema and life-threatening allergies is surely no accident. A nod to the future, an acknowledgement that, despite her own experiences, there is her future. Life carries on.

A wonderful memoir that will speak to everyone who has ever thought about the near misses in life and the fragility of existence.