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A Memoir
by Neko Case
From a beloved Grammy-nominated musician, a "heartbreaking and funny" memoir of a poverty-stricken childhood, obsessive desires, and indispensable friendships that reflects on the way art and music and a deep connection to nature guided her journey towards stardom (Maggie Smith, NYT bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful).
Neko Case has long been revered as one of music's most influential artists, whose authenticity, lyrical storytelling, and sly wit have endeared her to a legion of critics, musicians, and lifelong fans. In The Harder I Fight the More I Love You, Case brings her trademark candor and precision to a memoir that traces her evolution from an invisible girl "raised by two dogs and a space heater" in rural Washington state to her improbable emergence as an internationally-acclaimed talent.
In luminous, sharp-edged prose, Case shows readers what it's like to be left alone for hours and hours as a child, to take refuge in the woods around her home, and to channel the monotony and loneliness and joy that comes from music, camaraderie, and shared experience into art.
The Harder I Fight the More I Love You is a rebellious meditation on identity and corruption, and a manifesto on how to make space for ourselves in this world, despite the obstacles we face.
What book or books are you reading this week? (02/13/2025)
I just finished Neko Case's book The Harder I Fight The More I Love You. I love her music and her book makes me admire her even more with all that she had to overcome. I am now reading Alexei Navalny's Patriot which is a fascinating read so far.
-Erika_K
"In her first book, singer-songwriter Case takes a gut-wrenching look at her difficult childhood and her path toward a music career...With equal doses of grit and self-compassion, Case delivers a riveting autobiography that will fascinate even those who've never heard her music." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Case chronicles her various career achievements as a singer-songwriter (including three Grammy nominations), but those feel almost secondary to her study of her emotional growth, which she discusses with a rare candor." —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"Reader, I really want to hand this book to you personally and tell you, in one excited rush, how much it moved me. The Harder I Fight the More I Love You is a hell of an origin story: heartbreaking and funny, brave and weird, hard to swallow and impossible to put down. Neko Case has been my favorite singer-songwriter for many years, hands down, and now she's written one of my favorite memoirs." ―Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful
"This is a fierce, funny, moving memoir that will break your heart and patch it back up. Case's writing is as piercing and beautiful as her gorgeous singing, and will carry you away completely." ―New York Times bestselling author Susan Orlean
"I burned through this book in three feverish days, overcome by the spellcasting, storytelling, and pure song of Neko Case's words. Here is one of the most remarkable people you will ever meet, on the page or otherwise: So honest, kind, funny, and tender—so human—you will fall in love if you haven't already. A book not so much about the creation of an icon as it is about the lionhearted love Neko Case has for the whole damn world." ―Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch
This information about The Harder I Fight the More I Love You was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Singer, songwriter, music producer, visual artist, and writer Neko Case has built a career with her distinctive style and musical versatility. In addition to her numerous critically-acclaimed and Grammy-nominated solo records, Case is a founding member of The New Pornographers and has recorded a collaborative album with k.d. lang and Laura Veirs. She currently authors the popular bi-weekly Substack newsletter Entering the Lung and is writing the music for a high-profile Broadway production.
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