My Good Bright Wolf - by Sarah Moss

Book Synopsis

"Heartbreaking . . . Beautiful." --Amanda Seyfried, The New Yorker

Long-listed for the National Book Critics Award for Autobiography
A Best Book of the Year: Kirkus Reviews, The Independent, and the New York Public Library
A Must-Read: New York, Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, Shelf Awareness

From the acclaimed author of Ghost Wall, Summerwater, and The Fell, Sarah Moss's My Good Bright Wolf is an unflinching memoir about childhood, food, books, and our ability to see, become, and protect ourselves.

A girl must watch her figure but never be vain. She must be intelligent but never a know-it-all. She must be ambitious, if she is clever, but not in a way that shows. She must cook and sew and make do and mend. She must know (but never say) that these skills are, in some fundamental way, flawed and frivolous--feminine. Girls must stay small, even as they grow. Women must show restraint.

And yet. In books, in the landscape of imagination, a girl can run free.

Here, with My Good Bright Wolf, Sarah Moss takes on these rules, these lessons from the fables of girlhood, and uses them to fearlessly investigate the nature of memory, the lure of self-control, the impact of privilege, scarcity, parents, love. Through narratives of women and food, second-wave feminism and postwar puritanism, and her own challenges with a health care system that discounts the experiences of those it ought to serve, Moss seeks truth in the stories we tell ourselves and others. Harm can become power. Attention can become care. A body and a mind, though working hard together, can be at odds.

And yet. In books, in the landscape of imagination, a girl can run free.

Beautiful and sharp, moving and unapologetic, erudite and very funny, My Good Bright Wolf is a memoir that breaks the rules.

Review Quotes

"Spellbinding imagination and sizzling prose . . . Glorious."
--Dina Nayeri, The Guardian

"Powerfully original . . . Brilliant."
--Sylvia Brownrigg, The New York Times Book Review

"Poetic . . . Approach[es] truth, in all its messy, kaleidoscopic glory."
--Emily Gould, New York

"Extraordinary."
--Marion Winik, The Boston Globe

"Breathtaking . . . [Moss] broke my heart."
--Lorraine Berry, Los Angeles Times

"Haunting . . . [with] a dark, headlong allure."
--Katy Waldman, The New Yorker

"Stunning."
--Bethanne Patrick, Los Angeles Times

"Beautifully wild and dangerous . . . A howl both exquisitely anguished and profound . . . Further proof that Moss is a towering figure in the contemporary literary landscape."
--Lucy Scholes, The Telegraph

"[A] gorgeous puzzle box of a memoir . . . Runs far and fast through the heart of memory, our love of stories, and the beautiful blur between the two."
--Samantha Hunt, author of The Unwritten Book

"What My Good Bright Wolf offers is what Moss always offers and what literature should always offer; an unflinching willingness to confront what is difficult."
--Ben Clarke, Chicago Review of Books

"Revelatory . . . Full of daring."
--Ellen Peirson-Hagger, The Observer

"An enlightening meditation on what it means to be nourished."
--Haley Huchler, Washington Independent Review of Books

"A significant achievement . . . Piercingly perceptive."
--Oonagh Devitt Tremblay, Times Literary Supplement

"[A] riveting, lacerating, blazing memoir."
--Booklist

"A stirring and singular achievement."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Sensitive, deeply intelligent . . . Rich, complex reading."
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

"Feisty and original . . . A dark fairy tale."
--Rebecca Foster, Shelf Awareness (starred review)

"Gorgeous . . . Poetic."
--BookBrowse

"Honest, poignant, thoughtful, brave and beautifully written."
--Bookreporter

"Searching, scorching . . . A bodily song of instinct, survival, and strength."
--Nina MacLaughlin, author of Wake, Siren

About the Author

Sarah Moss is the author of the novels The Fell, Summerwater, and Ghost Wall. These and others of her books have been listed among the best of the year in The Guardian, The Times (London), Elle, and the Financial Times and selected for The New York Times Book Review's Editors' Choice. A fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she was educated at the University of Oxford and now teaches at University College Dublin.