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Published May 2011
224 pages
Genre: Biography/Memoir
Publication Information
Emma Forrest, a British journalist, was just twenty-two and living the fast life in New York City when she realized that her quirks had gone beyond eccentricity. In a cycle of loneliness, damaging relationships, and destructive behavior, she found herself in the chair of a slim, balding, and effortlessly optimistic psychiatrist - a man whose wisdom and humanity would wrench her from the dangerous tide after she tried to end her life. She was on the brink of drowning, but she was still working, still exploring, still writing, and she had also fallen deeply in love.
One day, when Emma called to make an appointment with her psychiatrist, she found no one there. He had died, shockingly, at the age of fifty-three, leaving behind a young family. Reeling from the premature death of a man who had become her anchor after she turned up on his doorstep, she was adrift. And when her all-consuming romantic relationship also fell apart, Emma was forced to cling to the page for survival and regain her footing on her own terms.
A modern-day fairy tale, Your Voice in My Head is a stunning memoir, clear-eyed and shot through with wit. In her unique voice, Emma Forrest explores the highs and lows of love and the heartbreak of loss.
"Starred Review. A brilliantly realized memoir of surprise and startling beauty." - Kirkus Reviews
"...dances along with all the lyrical panache of a novel...Her prose is smart and frequently witty and there are echoes of early Lorrie Moore...[but]...you can't help hoping she'll find what she really needs: someone who'll see straight through her and not fall for her oh-so-plausible lines on everything. And then, chillingly, you worry that the very existence of this book will provide her with the one thing she needs like a hole in the head: an audience." - Julie Myerson, The Observer
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"Being a 'messed-up girl' is an experience of being too much: too smart, too sexy, too crazy, too broken, too demanding. And Forrest's memoir succeeds by including the discursive too-much-ness of all that love and sanity. Her story is crushing and complicated, and entirely common. While its recounting provides a convenient forum for readers and critics to incorrectly translate the pain and glory of girldom into something shameful, what they should know, what the too-much girls like Forrest know already, is that it's not. It's gorgeous.." - The Globe and Mail (Canada)
"Emma Forrest is an incredibly gifted writer, who crafted the living daylights out of every sentence in this unforgettable memoir. I can’t remember the last time I ever read such a blistering, transfixing story of obsession, heartbreak and slow, stubborn healing." - Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love
"Emma Forrest is as hilarious as she is wise. And did I mention generous? Unlike most memoirs this is not merely a song of oneself, but a debt of gratitude repaid to an incredible man. Your Voice In My Head is touching, funny and very real." - Gary Shteyngart, author of Super Sad True Love Story
This information about Your Voice in My Head 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.
Emma Forrest is the author of three novels and editor of the nonfiction essay collection Damage Control. Raised in London, she now lives in Los Angeles, where she is a screenwriter.
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