Fathers

Description

Sam Miller's moving, personal account of his relationship with his father, Karl Miller, and the family secret they never spoke about In early 2014, after many years living abroad, Sam Miller returned to his childhood home in London. His father was dying. In the months after his death, Sam began to write about his father. He had been told, long ago, a family secret involving his parents and a close friend. Now, by reading his father's papers and with the help of his mother, he was able to piece together a remarkable story. Fathers is the result- a tender, thoughtful exploration of childhood and parenthood, of friendship, love and loyalty.

Sam Miller was born and brought up in London, but has spent much of his adult life in India. He is a former BBC journalist and is the author of Delhi- Adventures in a Megacity (2009), Blue Guide- India (2012) and A Strange Kind of Paradise- India Through Foreign Eyes (2014). He is also the translator of The Marvellous (But Authentic) Adventures of Captain Corcoran (2016) by Alfred Assollant.

A quiet and deeply affecting meditation on friendship and family secrets, Fathers glitters with love and uncertainty. Miller writes beautifully about mystery, memory, and how we choose our paths through life, how we decide who we are. -- Helen Macdonald Fathers is something much more surprising than a literary life: both a touching celebration of a parent, and the gentle unraveling of a family secret. -- Andrew Holgate * Sunday Times * I can't remember when I have more enjoyed a memoir, in the reading and in the conversations in my head afterwards with its author. Fathers is a profoundly rich and rewarding experience and will be gobbled up by readers and writers. -- Cathy Rentzenbrink * The Times * Fathers... is not a misery memoir. Far from it. It is... a kind of detective story -- Rachel Cooke * Observer * This book began as an extension of the speech Sam made at his father's funeral - and as a way to cope with his grief. It has become something else in the process: an exploration of love, sex, genetic disposition and what makes us who we are... There has been some remarkable dad lit over the last year... and Sam Miller's is a fascinating addition to the genre... There may be some who would have preferred the story to stay in-house. And as Sam is quick to acknowledge, others would tell it differently. But his, the son's version, is sunny: generous in spirit, exculpatory in tone, grateful rather than self-pitying. -- Blake Morrison * Guardian *