The Cut that Wouldn't Heal: Finding My Father

Description

'Honest without oversharing, William Leith is such a perfect writer ... A triumph' Justin Webb 'What might, in other hands, have been simply macabre becomes peculiarly mesmerising' Craig Brown, The Mail on Sunday Ten seconds before my father's death, I have a premonition - that the breath he is taking will be his last. It was only a graze caused by a dishwasher door, but the cut would not heal and infection took hold. Fifty days later, William Leith is standing by his father's bedside, watching him disappear. William is no stranger to his father disappearing; his childhood was marked by his father's absences, and as a consequence their relationship has always been a troubled one. Now, as his father is about to leave him for the last time, William reflects on the twists and turns of their shared history. Compelling, incisive, and told with searing honesty, The Cut that Wouldn't Heal is about family and grief, and the pain of abandonment. It is about the way we let our loved ones down and the things we cannot say. It is about the act of disappearing - but also about how we might be able to reach out and find each other again. Eloquent and moving, The Cut that Wouldn't Heal is a heartbreaking account of one man's quest to find his father.

William Leith has worked as a columnist and feature writer at the Independent on Sunday, the Mail on Sunday and the Observer. His writing spans a wide range of subjects, from food to celebrity, cosmetic surgery to fashion and film. He has written about African monarchs, political tension in Palestine, gold mining in the Klondike, Hollywood film directors, diet gurus and the death of James Dean. He is the author of three previous books: The Hungry Years, Bits of Me Are Falling Apart and The Trick.

PRAISE FOR THE CUT THAT WOULDN'T HEAL: The Cut That Wouldn't Heal should be depressing, but it is in fact weirdly exhilarating, largely because the author tracks his own feelings, however untoward, with a darkly comical precision ... What might, in other hands, have been simply macabre becomes peculiarly mesmerising. -- Craig Brown * The Mail on Sunday * A reckoning with the past by a writer whose past offers plenty to reckon with ... Pacily written ... satisfyingly structured -- Norma Clarke * Times Literary Supplement * Honest without oversharing, William Leith is such a perfect writer ... The Cut that Wouldn't Heal is a triumph and deeply moving. Wonderful. -- Justin Webb A concise and intensely readable study of love and regret. -- Ian Jack William Leith is a very fine writer, defined by a compulsive honesty: not the heavily-curated oversharing of social media culture, but the real, uncomfortable thing. This book, which deals in the sometimes absurdist agonies of grief - and indeed of life - is his best yet. * Laura Thompson * As mysterious and unsettling as a Cold War thriller - the search for self amidst the puzzle of a brilliant absentee father. -- Ed Needham * Strong Words Magazine * PRAISE FOR THE TRICK: The Trick takes all of Leith's writing habits - his mazy streams of consciousness (few writers are quite so enamoured of, or good at, watching themselves think) and his love of axiom - and, if anything, ups the ante... Hugely enjoyable. * Observer * PRAISE FOR THE HUNGRY YEARS: Compulsively readable. I gulped it down in a couple of greedy bites ... It is a powerful memoir ... it has the unusual qualities of heart and daring. In the end, these are what stay inside you. * Daily Telegraph *