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When Evelyn Gray, a lonely sixteen-year old from Carnation, Washington, overdoses, she wakes up in the hospital with her idol, Kurt Cobain, convalescing in the bed beside her, with no memory of his former life. Once united, they quickly become addicted to drugs and each other. They run off together and become infamous musicians. But as their celebrity grows, so does their jealousy and an incident of sexual violence explodes shockingly into murder.
About the author
Lynn Crosbie is a cultural critic, author, and poet. She teaches at the Ontario College of Art and Design and the University of Toronto.
Summary
Does true love have supernatural power?
Where Did You Sleep Last Night is a love story about a teenage girl who embarks on a relationship with Kurt Cobain.
Evelyn Gray is a sad and lonely sixteen-year-old from Carnation, Washington who is terrorized by her classmates at school. She spends most of her time in her room reading, writing letters to dead people, listening to old records and talking to the poster of Kurt Cobain above her bed.
Her mother is an alcoholic grunge relic from Seattle, whose recollections, books and music help ignite Evelyn’s love for Cobain—a love so painfully strong that it summons the deceased singer to her side.
When Evelyn is taken to the hospital after an overdose, she awakens to find Cobain—who has little to no memory of his former life—convalescing in the bed beside her.
Once united, they quickly become addicted to drugs and each other.
Cobain—renamed Celine Black—and Evelyn escape the hospital and run off together, determined to have everything they want. Inevitably, they become infamous musicians, but despite their mutual devotion, the couple is tormented by strong passion and jealousy. As their celebrity grows, their relationship becomes more excessive, and an episode of sexual violence explodes, shockingly, into murder.
A highly original work of haute fan fiction, written in Crosbie’s poetic and emotionally evocative prose, Where Did You Sleep Last Night is an imaginative, surprisingly funny, and touching novel about the adamant persistence of love.
Additional text
"The surreal stream of-consciousness Crosbie adopts to describe their drug highs feels remarkably authentic. By turns funny and tragic, fan fiction and elegy, this is a must-read for Nirvana fans. Named for the song popularized by Lead Belly, which Cobain sang in one of his final performances, the novel is just as moving and raw." Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
“Lynn Crosbie is what a great writer should be: pissed off, bereft, misunderstood, impolite, funny, and in love with the madness of the world.” Miriam Toews, author of All My Puny Sorrows
“Where Did You Sleep Last Night is terrifying and beautiful. It is a thrift store jam packed with once loved, tattered, and gorgeous images. Crosbie is as mad as Rimbaud as sweet as Keats and as debauched as Courtney Love. Kurt Cobain would have adored her.” Heather O’Neill, author of The Girl Who Was Saturday Night
“Lynn Crosbie’s Where Did You Sleep Last Night is a brilliant portrait of romance, rages, passionate reunions, the emptiness of fame and the devastating losses that afflict two doomed rock stars locked in a heart-shaped box. Every sentence is poetry. I predict this book will, like Kurt Cobain, develop its own cult following.” Jowita Bydlowska, author of Drunk Mom
"Bold, kaleidoscopic, full of absurd black humour, Lynn Crosbie’s new novel Where Did You Sleep Last Night is quite unlike anything else that’s been published recently...It is pop and avant-garde, full of fireworks and heartbreak." The Globe and Mail
