Make It Scream, Make It Burn

Description

'Intelligent, compassionate, and so fiercely, prodigiously brave. This is the essay at its creative, philosophical best' - Eleanor Catton, author of The Luminaries on The Empathy Exams A profound exploration of the oceanic depths of longing and obsession, Make It Scream, Make It Burn is a book about why and how we tell stories. It takes the reader deep into the lives of strangers - from a woman healed by the song of 'the loneliest whale in the world' to a family convinced their child is a reincarnation of a lost pilot - and asks how we can bear witness to the changing truths of others' lives while striving to find a deeper connection to the complexities of our own.

Widely considered one of the defining voices of her generation, Leslie Jamison is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Recovering and The Empathy Exams as well as the novel The Gin Closet. Raised in Los Angeles and educated at Harvard, she now lives in New York.

Essays of compassion and conviction... Jamison covers a wide range of subjects with deep empathy and intelligence. . . Perhaps all writing is an innate, primal scream, and Jamison - astutely - knows and embodies this with compassion and vigour -- Sinead Gleeson * Irish Times * Railing, roaring essays on humanity... Jamison has time for everyone... excellent * Telegraph * Wide-ranging... [Jamison's] language is typically lush... [she] picks excellent topics... Jamison walks a careful line between scepticism and compassion - never sacrificing her subjects' dignity... fascinating * New Statesman * One of the most esteemed contemporary names in nonfiction...Biting and honest * Book Riot * Generous in her sympathy and probing in her intellect... [Jamison's] writing is extraordinarily precise, rendering both the extraordinary and the everyday as equally transparent, equally miraculous * In the Moment * Searing observations and compassion for what it means to be human * Press Association * Heartbreaking...razor-sharp * Oxonian * Fierce -- Best Books of the Year (chosen by Sinead Gleeson) * Irish Times *