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You Could Make This Place Beautiful

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About this listen

'Life, like a poem, is a series of choices'

In her long-awaited debut memoir, You Could Make This Place Beautiful, award-winning poet Maggie Smith explores in lyrical vignettes the end of her marriage and the beginning of a surprising new life. With the spirit of reflection and empathy she's known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness and narrative itself.

It is a story about a mother's fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman's love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is an argument for possibility. Smith reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new. Something beautiful.

©2023 Maggie Smith (P)2023 Canongate Books Personal Development Personal Success Women Memoir

Critic reviews

'In this lightning bolt of a debut memoir, Maggie Smith gives us the truth of healing in form as much as story: getting through is no pretty, linear narrative. It's one chapter forward and five chapters back. You Could Make This Place Beautiful gave me back a part of myself I thought was gone for good: the knowledge that beauty isn't something out there to find. It's in us.' (Megan Stielstra, author of The Wrong Way to Save Your Life)

'You Could Make This Place Beautiful is a sparklingly brilliant memoir-in-vignettes that only Maggie Smith could write. Yet this is a book for everyone - who among us has never had our world upended by the loss of a relationship? Maggie Smith's powerful mastery of language, and amazing ability to portray life in all its rich messiness, is on full display in this bold, brutally candid, and yes, beautiful, book.' (Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author of Dirtbag, Massachusetts)

'Listen, you may not need me to tell you what you already know about the shining star that is Maggie Smith, but you can certainly add me to the chorus of those singing her praises about You Could Make This Place Beautiful. Among her singular gifts as a writer are the way she swiftly brings her poetry to her prose; her willingness to show up to the page with aspirational levels of vulnerability, grace and joy; and a clarity of heart amid the heartbreak.' (Elizabeth Crane, author of This Story Will Change)
All stars
Most relevant
I really loved the first half of this book and then I felt it floundered towards the end. The performance is great and there were moments that really spoke to me. To be honest I think this book isn’t supposed to be loved and liked by everyone all the way through. Listen. Take what resonates with you, and leave the rest. We’re all different and that’s what makes us beautiful…. AND there are some deep commonalities that many of us experience.

Beautiful short vignettes

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Enjoyed the book. It is hopeful despite being such a devastating topic. The writing is poetic and lyrical. I really enjoyed it

Beautifully told story of divorce

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This was a beautiful book retelling the effects of a truly devastating event. I felt all the feelings listening to this. Maggie has a beautiful voice and I am so grateful that she shared her story.

Heartbreak & Healing

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This is an utterly beautiful, articulate and devastating description of the breakdown of a marriage alongside her endeavours to have a life as a writer. I think this would resonate with a lot of creative people, and while my marriage is good, her descriptive inventory of what makes a marriage, and a creative life, feels like a handbook. Highly recommend.

Beautiful, articulate

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