by D. M. Thomas
First published 2021
D. M. Thomas opens his life like a book of wounds and wonder, tracing the emotional currents that shaped him from his 1935 birth through six decades of love, loss, and creative struggle. The acclaimed author of The White Hotel turns his poet's eye inward, examining the sexual encounters and intimate relationships that marked his often chaotic personal journey. Thomas moves through marriages and affairs, domestic upheavals and creative breakthroughs, until he reaches 1998 and the death of his second wife. Written in verse, his memoir captures both the raw intensity of desire and the quiet devastation of grief. This is a writer confronting his own contradictions, his capacity for both tenderness and destruction. Thomas offers readers not redemption but recognition, the hard-won wisdom of a man who has lived fully and paid the price for his choices.
Genres: 20th-century, autobiography, biography-memoir, 21st-century
Vibes: emotional, intimate, lyrical
Tropes: coming-of-age, self-discovery
Period: 1935, 1998
280 pages · Paperback · The Cornovia Press