About the Book
London, 1965: A brilliant young woman has just gassed herself to death, leaving behind a note, two young sons, and a soon-to-be-published book. A promising academic and feminist at the dawn of modern feminism, no one had imagined Hannah Gavron might take her own life. Forty years later, her son Jeremy attempts to solve both this mystery of his mother’s death and the mystery of the mother he never had the chance to know. From the fragments of life she left behind, he ultimately uncovers not only Hannah’s struggle to carve out her place in a man’s world; he examines the constrictions on every ambitious woman in the mid-20th century.
About the Author :
Jeremy Gavron is the author of The Book of Israel, winner of the Encore Award, and An Acre of Barren Ground. A former foreign correspondent in Africa and Asia, he lives in London, and teaches in the MFA program at Warren Wilson College in North Carolina.
Review :
"2016 Gordon Burn Prize Finalist
An Observer, London Times, and Sydney Morning Herald book of the year
"Beautifully written—wholly unique—A Woman on the Edge of Time is an elegy/memoir that is also a kind of detective story—in which the author investigates, with as much dread as hope, the circumstances leading to the suicide of his charismatic and accomplished mother many years before. It is difficult not to rush through Jeremy Gavron’s compelling story which would translate brilliantly into cinematic form."
"A thoughtful meditation on a ruthless, mysterious final act."
"[Gavron’s] careful work conjures not only one remarkable woman but also a snapshot of the fractured lives of women in general during the rapidly warping 1960s, with moving and revelatory conclusions. In a book with suicide in its subtitle, Gavron reminds readers of art’s work in raising the dead."
"Jeremy Gavron’s quest to find his mother has produced a groundbreaking book and moving portrait of a spirited young woman—a ‘captive wife’—who refused to accept the social constraints of her time. Unforgettable."
"This volume succeeds as both a poignant memoir and a well-researched and -constructed investigation of a life ended too soon. An engrossing and highly recommended portrait of a woman who burned too brightly for her time and the long-term effects of suicide by a child left behind."
"[Gavron’s] writing poignantly touches the enigmatic interior life of a mother ‘forever out of reach.’"
"The legacy of a mother and her suicide reveals the story of both a woman and a social movement."
"This is a memoir and a non-memoir, one on many levels, of Hannah Gavron’s absence, of her charismatic presence, and a vivid vision too of the decades which framed her. . . . This pioneering, intense, and visceral work . . . is both an act of mourning and a revelation of life. The genius of A Woman on the Edge of Time is that the impossible, very real Hannah Gavron—cheeky, warm, clever, determined, brilliant, shining, paradoxical—comes so fully back to life."
"Gavron explores the complex ups and downs of [his mother’s] story with startling intensity."
"Mesmerising . . . Meticulous, even-handed and quietly revelatory, [A Woman on the Edge of Time] may be read both as a kind of detective story, the reader’s stomach fluttering wildly each time he tracks down another witness, and as a work of social history, a sly skewering of the limitations, whether spoken or unspoken, which were then placed on women."
"Gavron is too subtle and intelligent to make the mistake of believing that suicide is ever about only one thing. And here, in beautiful, mesmeric prose, he delves deep into the shadow side of his mother’s life. . . . The result is a memoir that is surely going to be regarded as a classic of the genre."
"Jeremy Gavron’s quest [in writing A Woman on the Edge of Time] is a double quest: to find out what his mother was like in life and to find out why she killed herself. . . . The tenacity with which he pursues this goal is extraordinary. . . . The taboo of silence that shrouded Jeremy’s childhood is broken. Those complicit with it aren’t arraigned; the tone is patient and compassionate. But Hannah [Gavron] steps out of the shadow, 50 years on, and the great unsaids are finally spoken."
"Gavron’s attempt to understand, and thus forgive . . . the mother who abandoned him, is admirable."
"Gavron has written a book as brave and honest as it is heart-stopping and gripping. With the meticulousness of a detective and the heart and soul of an abandoned son, he sets out to examine a family tragedy so raw and agonising that it is rarely talked, let alone written, about. I felt for him—and every man, woman, and child in this book —whilst at the same time finding myself unable to put it down. Yes, you sense him stepping, with touching sensitivity, through some desperately painful (and potentially dangerous) territory. But if authors can’t write about the mysteries closest to their hearts, then what point is there, really, in memoir?"
"A Woman on the Edge of Time possesses all the signature verve, imagination, and elegance of Gavron’s writing but he brings to this, the story of his mother’s suicide when he was four years old, a particular burning, restless intelligence. The result is a memoir of devastating, heartbreaking power: I had to put my life on hold to finish it."
