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THE PARTS OF HIM I KEPT
NATASHA WILLIAMS
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Information in this post is courtesy of Meg Walker of Tandem Literary: Publicity & Marketing
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Captures Natasha Williams’s experiences growing up with her schizophrenic father in the gritty New York City of the 1970s.
An intimate account of a daughter’s coming of age in the face of her father’s schizophrenic unraveling.
Layered among Williams’s gorgeously written deeply personal remembrances are important insights about today’s unprecedented mental health crisis in which nearly 60-million US adults have experienced severe mental illness.
The resulting narrative humanizes living with mental illness and illuminates how families find hope, and even thrive, in the face of extraordinary challenges.
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April 29
Apprentice House Press
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PRAISE THE PARTS OF HIM I KEPT:
“If you ever doubt the mental strength and resiliency of humans, read Natasha Williams's memoir, The Parts of Him I Kept...Williams impressively sets aside self-pity and victimhood...Every situation is different, but Williams, until her father's death, lived under the shadow of his schizophrenia. She shows us how to handle it with as much grace as possible, and her frankness in the book is a bracing gift.”—Chronogram
“A profound meditation on love and family. Natasha Williams offers us a portrait of America at a time when everything was in flux, when people searched for new ways to live, and (if they were lucky) ended up simply loving each other.”—Nick Flynn, Another Bullshit Night in Suck City and Lowlife
“Read the first thirty pages of The Parts of Him I Kept, and I bet you would cancel your own wedding to read the rest of it. Natasha Williams has a hell of a story to tell, and she writes like an angel.”—Abigail Thomas, Still Life at Eighty
“Natasha Williams has written an extraordinary memoir of growing up with a schizophrenic father and frequently dysfunctional mother. It is as emotionally wrenching (and occasionally terrifying) as you would expect, but it is also funny, wise, beautifully observed and astonishingly tender.”—James Lasdun, Victory
“A gifted work of graceful eloquence, this memoir is an homage to the universal power of tenderness.”—Lisa St. John, Swallowing Stones
“A lyrical and deeply moving memoir about love, loss, and resilience in the face of her father's schizophrenia. Through tender prose and raw honesty, Williams explores the enduring bonds that tether us, even amid chaos and ultimately healing.”
—Jai Chakrabarti, A Small Sacrifice for an Enormous Happiness
Praised as “a profound meditation on love and family” (Nick Flynn), “a hell of a story” (Abigail Thomas), and “beautifully observed and astonishingly tender” (James Lasdun)
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ABOUT THE PARTS OF HIM I KEPT:One cold night in April, Natasha’s father drove his car into the frigid water of New York Bay with her two-year-old half-sister in the backseat.
She was the one to walk him past the column of hungry reporters demanding an explanation.
The headline in The Daily News read: Back from a Watery Grave. But Natasha’s experiences growing up with her schizophrenic father in the gritty New York City of the 1970s are not so easily captured in a single headline.
How could she possibly convey the power of her father’s love in the face of this tragedy?
The Parts of Him I Kept is an intimate account of coming of age in the face of a father's schizophrenic unraveling.
In the tradition of Michael Greenberg's Hurry Down Sunshine and Robert Kolker's Hidden Valley Road, Williams explores the limits of our understanding of schizophrenia and chronicles the burden and privilege of caring for a mentally ill family member.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
This is Natasha Williams’ debut book.
She has an MA from the University of Pennsylvania and attended the Bread Loaf School of English and the Bread Loaf Writers Conference.
Excerpts and essays have been published in the Bread Loaf Journal, Change Seven, LIT, Memoir Magazine, Onion River Review, Writers Read, Post Road, and South Dakota Review.
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