Bad Blood
Description
Bestselling author Lorna Sage delivers the tragicomic memoirof her escape from a claustrophobic childhood in post-WWII Britain—and thestory of the weddings and relationships that defined three generations of herfamily—in Bad Blood, an internationalbestseller and the winner of the coveted Whitbread Biography Award. Readers ofbooks like Angela’s Ashes and The Liar’s Club as well as fans ofSage’s own lucid and penetrating writing will be captivated by the book thatthe New York Times Book Review said“fills us with wonder and gratitude. . . . Few literary critics have everwritten anything so memorable.”
This celebrated memoir unflinchingly explores the secrets that bind a family:
- A Dysfunctional Family: At the center is Sage's grandfather: a bitter, theatrical vicar in a remote Welsh border village, whose affairs and secret diaries cast a long shadow.
- Post-War Britain: A vivid portrait of a claustrophobic childhood in an England of rationing, social codes, and secrets, where escape seems impossible.
- Coming of Age: From a girl who finds refuge in books to a sixteen-year-old facing an unexpected pregnancy, Sage's journey is sharp, unsentimental, and unforgettable.
- A Mother-Daughter Story: The complex, often painful relationships between three generations of women are laid bare with wit and breathtaking honesty.
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Person
An influential literary critic, Lorna Sage was a professor of English at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, England. Her other books include Women in the House of Fiction, The Cambridge Guide to Women’s Writing in English, and a study of the novelist Angela Carter. She died in 2001.