Bon Courage - by Ru Freeman (Paperback)

About the Book

"It is hard for any of us to separate what is imagined from what is real. We are all story-tellers of our own lives, narrating what we observe, making sense of it all. What happens around us is equally complicated for, as the writer, Anaèis Nin put it, "we don't see the world as it is, as we see it as we are." In that liminal space between what is and what we think it is, we write history: our own and that of others. That word, history, has its origins in the Greek term, historia, which implies a dynamic process of finding out, of inquiry, rather than the passivity of recording. This collection then, is a similar endeavor. It is a writer's attempt to train her eye on what is unfolding around her, as well as herself, all of it viewed through a kaleidoscope constructed of four mirrors: place, culture, politics, and a self that shares its borders with all three. Words are the glass beads inside. Twist the instrument and the world rearranges itself. Bon Courage is a fierce, moving, eclectic and intimate collection-wide ranging and inclusive in the essay mode, deep and revealing as a memoir, with the dynamics and layering of great fiction. As if that's not enough, it sings. Ru Freeman is able to participate intimately while bringing global perspectives to subjects as diverse as Bowie and Dylan, Palestine, 9/11, hairstyles, personal and cultural identity, and #Me too. This is a resplendent and compendious exploration of great empathy, insight, and bon courage indeed. It's going to make a great book. It's going to make a difference"--

Book Synopsis

Bon Courage is a fierce, eclectic, and intimate collection that encompasses the big questions of our time: what we mean by courage, how we define our world, how we choose to exist in it.

Bon Courage is an exhilarating journey through a layered intellectual landscape textured with a range of political and personal enthusiasms, and emboldened by a passionate defense of the disregarded. Wide ranging and inclusive in the essay mode, deep and revealing as a memoir, with the dynamics and layering of great fiction. As if that's not enough, it sings. Ru Freeman participates intimately while bringing global perspectives to subjects as diverse as Bowie and Dylan, Palestine, 9/11, hairstyles, personal and cultural identity, motherhood and #MeToo. A resplendent and compendious exploration of great empathy, insight, and bon courage indeed. This is a book that is going to make a difference.

Review Quotes

Ru Freeman captures the moment when the thorn enters the skin, and then she leads us forward towards healing. A great collection from one of the best and most necessary voices of our times. --Colum McCann, Let the Great World Spin

Ru Freeman never hesitates to tackle big political issues, but she does so with the most human and heartfelt touch. I've been a fan of her work for a long time and always look forward to what she'll write next. --Celeste Ng, New York Times bestselling author of Little Fires Everywhere

I have known and watched Ru for many years with awe--we have few of her kind in the literary world. A truth-teller, a true fighter, a loving creator, we only have a few that stand for something and not sit for everything. --Porochista Khakpour, Brown Album: Essays on Exile & Identity

About the Author

Ru Freeman is a Sri Lankan and American writer, poet, and activist whose work appears internationally in English and in translation. She is the author of Sleeping Alone: Stories, the novels A Disobedient Girl and On Sal Mal Lane, a New York Times Editor's Choice Book, and editor of the anthologies, Extraordinary Rendition: (American) Writers on Palestine and Indivisible: Global Leaders on Shared Security. She directs the Artist Network at Narrative 4 and teaches creative writing in the U.S. and abroad.