All at Sea
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- R$ 34,90
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- R$ 34,90
Descrição da editora
Shortlisted for the 2017 PEN Ackerley Prize
‘The thing to remember about this story is that every word is true. If I never told it to a soul, and this book did not exist, it would not cease to be true. I don’t mind at all if you forget this.
The important thing is that I don’t.’
On a hot still morning on a beautiful beach in Jamaica, Decca Aitkenhead’s life changed for ever.
Her four-year-old boy was paddling peacefully at the water’s edge when a wave pulled him out to sea. Her partner, Tony, swam out and saved their son’s life – then drowned before her eyes.
When Decca and Tony first met a decade earlier, they became the most improbable couple in London. She was an award-winning Guardian journalist, famous for interviewing leading politicians. He was a dreadlocked criminal with a history of drug-dealing and violence. No one thought the romance would last, but it did. Until the tide swept Tony away, plunging Decca into the dark chasm of random tragedy.
Exploring race and redemption, privilege and prejudice, ALL AT SEA is a remarkable story of love and loss, of how one couple changed each other’s lives and of what a sudden death can do to the people who survive.
Reviews
‘If I read a sadder, truer, wiser chapter in a book this year I will count myself fortunate … Aitkenhead’s loss was our gain’ The Times
‘An exemplary memoir … However magnificent and powerful the book, you know it pales in comparison with the loss’ Sunday Times
‘This book is impossible to forget … It reminds one that grief is about transformation, the loss of old moorings, a new permission to put the heart first- a sea change’ Observer
‘Astonishing…. Aitkenhead has produced a work of art’ Evening Standard
‘An extraordinary memoir, a beautifully written account of life, love and what is left of both after tragedy …Utterly heart-breaking but it’s also a brave and honest account of grief and its aftermath that will stay with you long after you finish the last page’ Daily Express
‘Finely observed, emotionally truthful and beautifully written, her memoir is testament to the extraordinary power of love that doesn’t vanish when life of the beloved ends, but endures as long as memory itself’ Mail on Sunday
‘A story of absolute heartbreak, but also a story of unbelievable courage’ Davina McCall
‘An entrancing love story; a horrifying death story; a book about class, family, growing up, taking risks and learning how to be strong. Read it once, and it will be inside your head forever’ Andrew Marr
‘If you buy just one book this year, make it this one. I have never read anything like it and wished it would never end’ Jennifer Saunders
‘A brave book about emotional truth. It brought a tear to my eye, and will be deeply empowering for those who read it’ Tanya Byron
‘Anyone who has loved, lost or grieved – that's all of us – should read it.’ Alastair Campbell
‘A remarkable story of sudden tragedy and grief, of love and resilience’ Arianna Huffington
‘Beautiful’ Sunday Times
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
While on a relaxing family beach vacation in Jamaica, Guardian journalist Aitkenheadwatched helplessly as her husband, Tony, drowns after rescuing their four-year-old son. Her remarkable memoir recounts the emotional toll his death takes on her and her two sons. The narrative explores how the foggy lens of truth, through which she, as a journalist, previously viewed tragedy, can shatter when tragedy hits home. Aitkenhead and Tony made for an unlikely pair. She covered the political beat for the Guardian while he dealt drugs and smoked crack, with violence part of his life. Yet the couple fell in love and had two sons together, and Tony became a model husband and father. Aitkenhead probes her own psyche to explore the numerous incongruities in her life that surface during her relationship with Tony. She looks at the serious depression that arose in her family when her mother died. Aitkenhead's tightly written memoir looks beyond commonly held truths, taking readers deep into the morass of human emotion and leaving them gasping for air.