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This Ragged Grace

A Memoir of Recovery and Renewal

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This Ragged Grace

By: Octavia Bright
Narrated by: Octavia Bright
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A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023: BIOGRAPHY

This Ragged Grace tells the story of Octavia’s journey through recovery from alcohol addiction, and the parallel story of her father’s descent into Alzheimer’s. Looking back over this time, each of the seven chapters explores the feelings and experiences of the corresponding year of her recovery, tracing the shift in emotion and understanding that comes with the deepening connection to this new way of life. Over the course of this seven-year period, life continues to unfold. Paths are abandoned, people fall ill, waters get choppy, seemingly impossible things are navigated without the old fixes.

As Octavia moves between London, the island of Stromboli, New York, Cornwall and Margate, each place offers something new but ultimately always delivers the same message: that wherever you go, you take yourself with you.

 Addiction & Recovery Memoir
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Critic reviews

"An intimate, raw, empathetic story of loss, recovery, love and human fragility. This Ragged Grace is a beautifully written and intricately observed masterpiece of a memoir" (DOLLY ALDERTON)
"An extraordinary, electrifying book about loss, chaos, addiction and death, and the wild work of staying tender in the face of it" (OLIVIA LAING)
"The intelligence of the writing is a kind of grace in itself - light and deep and beautiful" (DEBORAH LEVY)
"A beautifully written and intellectual account of a woman coming to terms with herself . . . Heartbreakingly tender . . . Her sensitivity to the world is what makes the writing so beautiful and, ultimately, hopeful. Death hovers on every page and yet this book is full of life"
"This Ragged Grace is smart and tender, and honest in that raw way that gets you at the back of your throat. It is slowly revealing of the world, and an avalanche of feeling, all at the same time. A towering act of grace, in fact" (EMILIE PINE)
"The tension between what we remember and what we forget is at the core of this evocative memoir . . . Regular listeners of Literary Friction, the podcast that Bright co-hosts, will be familiar with her intelligent yet deeply felt style. A lover of art as well as literature, she uses the works of Louise Bourgeois and Sigmund Freud to trace her story of healing . . . immensely poignant"
"How lucky we are that Octavia Bright has written this book, full of rich, subtle, hard-won, beautifully woven wisdom and love. Read this book and carry its light with you forever" (DAMIAN LE BAS)
"This Ragged Grace is a courageous work, filled with a deep tenderness and generosity and authenticity. The voice of Octavia Bright stays with me, it is honest, intricate, raw and real. This Ragged Grace is so beautiful, so bold and so Bright" (SALENA GODDEN)
"Bright transforms her and her father’s story into something not just shapely and solid, but beautiful and moving, too"
"This Ragged Grace examines the fragility of the self in exquisite detail. Generous, compelling, poignant and ultimately life affirming; Bright has managed to capture the complexity of being human" (HEIDI JAMES)
All stars
Most relevant
I think this is a brilliant piece, delivered a bit too slowly - I found the slow delivery a. bit. irritating. and remembered too late I could have sped it up a notch.

I thought I might have found the description of her father's dementia too hard to listen too, but infact this was the part I 'enjoyed' the most.

The author deliberately kept descriptions of why she gave up drinking to a minimum but without a few more it was hard for me to get a full understanding of the person she'd been pre-recovery.

Having said all that - it's a great book.

Drew me in

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A beautiful work read memorably by the author herself. It was transporting and thoughtful, gentle and intense - all at once.

A beautiful work

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This was a great listen. Octavia takes you with her on a moving and insightful journey through her sobriety in tandem with her father's Alzheimer’s and declining health. It's beautifully narrated and leaves you with lots of food for thought, traversing an emotional journey with sensitivity, intelligence and wit. It's wonderfully written and explores, with great success, what it means to find yourself and lose a parent, whilst being carefully interwoven with interesting and pertinent artistic, philosophical, and artistic ideas.

moving and insightful

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Deeply affecting, searingly honest, beautifully written and so very well read by the author. I’ve also bought the print version as I know this is a book I’ll revisit again & again.

A piece of writing to be treasured

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Found it a little too abstract and academic for me, which hindered the story but some interesting ideas explored. Loved her honesty in the sharing of her story.

A Thought provoking read

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