Exit Wounds

A Story of Love, Loss and Occasional Wars

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Exit Wounds

By: Peter Godwin

Narrated by: Peter Godwin

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LONGLISTED FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES LITERARY AWARD FOR NONFICTION

'Masterful' DAVE EGGERS
'Unforgettable' MAGGIE SMITH
'Profound' CLAIRE MESSUD
'Will leave you breathless' AMINATTA FORMA

When she turned ninety, my mother sprang a final surprise on us. She started speaking in the voice of a stranger.

Peter’s mother is dying. She finally drops her guard, losing all fear of conflict to become the family provocateur.

While confronting the revelations of what his family was – and wasn’t – and the stoicism that sometimes threatened to destroy them, Peter reflects on his family’s legacy of exile and their tenuous hold on home. He makes us question, suffer and celebrate the relationships we have among family and friends, and the healing of our own wounds.

Peter GodwinPeter GodwinCanongate Books

Cultural & Regional

England

Funny

Witty

War

Cultural & Regional England Funny Witty War

Critic reviews

"[Godwin] is excellent at bringing in literary allusions to capture the gossamer quality of memory, skipping lightly but illuminatingly from Dorothy Parker to Emily Dickinson and from Philip Larkin to Vladimir Nabokov . . . Godwin takes palpable pleasure in language, and sometimes this produces poetry . . . Exit Wounds is an elegant, cerebral book"

"A profound account of this strange time of life we’re all in – when all the certainties we thought we’d sorted out are collapsing around us and we’re suddenly like naked children in the wilderness . . . This moving memoir is an essential addition to Peter Godwin’s brilliant oeuvre" (CLAIRE MESSUD)

"Finely wrought, contemplative, intimate, lyrical and searingly emotionally honest, Exit Wounds is a story of war and love and of tragedy. In a life that has been marked by loss: of a birthright, a nation, of family and finally of his marriage, Peter Godwin traverses the wilderness of grief towards redemption. Exit Wounds will leave you breathless and imprint itself indelibly upon your heart" (AMINATTA FORNA)

"So funny, so elegant, so erudite, and as a portrait of an extraordinary mother and the family she made, it is masterful, moving and unforgettable" (DAVE EGGERS)

"Like Rembrandt, each unflinching portrait-in-prose illuminates Peter Godwin’s extraordinary life. His masterwork" (RICHARD E. GRANT)

"Smart, observant, touching . . . deeply affecting"

"Magnificent and moving" (TAN TWAN ENG)

"A memoir on love, loss and life, of rare candour and intimacy, utterly compelling, by a truly brilliant writer" (PHILIPPE SANDS)

"Eloquent…beautiful…. Mr. Godwin writes about his ma with affection and careful detail. Gentle humor is ever-present" (Tunku Varadarajan)

"This is an exceptional memoir, its stories told with such immediacy that the reader lives Godwin’s days with him . . . Few people have described better the anguish of separation, the constant sense of not belonging, the quest for a centre that might hold. He writes humorously; but there is no mistaking the pain"

Most relevant

This memoir could belong to any of us Rhodesian-Zimbabwean children. How our “tribe” have been ripped apart and spread around the world; Peter puts our aches and pains into words, how we as the children of a once incredible nation have had to start again. Watching as our parents hard work and dedication were slowly torn apart & the wrestling of life itself in their demise. Thank you Peter.