{"product_id":"she-left-me-the-gun","title":"She Left Me The Gun","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"A beautiful, wise book\u003c\/b\u003e.\u003cb\u003e It deals with the some of the grimmest aspects of human experience, but it is also one of the most genuinely up-lifting works I have read in years. Emma Brockes'' superb, clear-eyed narration is an object lesson for any aspiring memoir-writer. \u003ci\u003eShe Left Me the Gun\u003c\/i\u003e deserves to become a classic.\" \u003ci\u003eZoe Heller\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen Emma Brockes was ten years old, her mother said  ''One day I will tell you the story of my life and you will be amazed.'' Growing up in a tranquil English village, Emma knew very little of her mother''s life before her. She knew Paula had grown up in South Africa and had seven siblings. She had been told stories about deadly snakes and hailstones the size of golf balls. There was mention, once, of a trial. But most of the past was a mystery. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhen her mother dies of cancer, Emma - by then a successful journalist at the \u003ci\u003eGuardian\u003c\/i\u003e - is free to investigate the untold story. Her search begins in the Colindale library but then takes her to South Africa, to the extended family she has never met and their accounts of a childhood so different to her own. She encounters versions of the life her mother chose to leave behind - and realises what a gift her mother gave her.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePart investigation, part travelogue, part elegy, \u003ci\u003eShe Left Me the Gun\u003c\/i\u003e is a gripping, funny and clear-eyed account of a writer''s search for her mother''s story.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MediaPlace","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57380150870398,"sku":"NW9780571275854","price":11.34,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1379\/1261\/files\/9780571275854.jpg?v=1778247799","url":"https:\/\/mediaplace.com\/products\/she-left-me-the-gun","provider":"MediaPlace","version":"1.0","type":"link"}