Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? cover art

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

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Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Written by: Jeanette Winterson
Narrated by: Jeanette Winterson
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About this listen

Shortlisted for: UK Author of the year – Specsavers National Book Awards 2012

When Jeanette Winterson, author of Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, left home at 16 because she was in love with a woman, Mrs. Winterson asked her: "Why be happy when you could be normal?" This book is the story of a life's work to find happiness. It is the story of how the painful past returned to haunt Jeanette's later life, and send her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her real mother. It is also a book about other people's stories, showing how fiction and poetry can form a string of guiding lights, a life raft which supports us when we are sinking.

©2011 Jeannette Winterson (P)2014 Audible, Inc. Art & Literature Authors LGBTQ+ Studies
All stars
Most relevant
irresistible
such a pleasure and treat ...
inexplicable how meaningful it is to listen to
especially if you love books, writing, women, the north, god, loving, living... life

my whole heart lives in this book and in her voice

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What a life...and what a recounting of a life! Winterson's writing has the clarity and imagery of poetry, and so much warmth, humour and compassion. And only she could have narrated this book...a good illustration of why more writers should be encouraged to narrate their own audiobooks

Gorgeous and heartbreaking

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