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* SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2021 *
'If her moving, engrossing, elegantly written memoir does not win prizes, there really is no justice in the literary world.' Lucy Atkins, Sunday Times
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
When Arifa Akbar discovered that her sister had fallen seriously ill, she assumed there would be a brief spell in hospital and then she'd be home. This was not to be. It was not until the day before she died that the family discovered she was suffering from tuberculosis.
Consumed is a story of sisterhood, grief, the redemptive power of art and the strange mythologies that surround tuberculosis. It takes us from Keats's deathbed and the tubercular women of opera to the resurgence of TB in modern Britain today. Arifa travels to Rome to haunt the places Keats and her sister had explored, to her grandparent's house in Pakistan, to her sister's bedside at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and back to a London of the seventies when her family first arrived, poor, homeless and hungry.
Consumed is an eloquent and moving excavation of a family's secrets and a sister's detective story to understand her sibling.
About the author
Arifa Akbar is chief theatre critic for the Guardian. She has previously been literary editor at the Independent, as well as a news reporter and arts correspondent. She has served as a trustee on the boards of the Orwell Foundation and English PEN. She is currently a fellow of the London Centre for the Humanities. Her first book, Consumed: In Search of my Sister, was shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards, PEN Ackerley Prize and Jhalak Prize, and it was longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize. Wolf Moon is her second book.
Summary
* SHORTLISTED FOR THE COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD 2021 *
'If her moving, engrossing, elegantly written memoir does not win prizes, there really is no justice in the literary world.' Lucy Atkins, Sunday Times
All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.
When Arifa Akbar discovered that her sister had fallen seriously ill, she assumed there would be a brief spell in hospital and then she'd be home. This was not to be. It was not until the day before she died that the family discovered she was suffering from tuberculosis.
Consumed is a story of sisterhood, grief, the redemptive power of art and the strange mythologies that surround tuberculosis. It takes us from Keats's deathbed and the tubercular women of opera to the resurgence of TB in modern Britain today. Arifa travels to Rome to haunt the places Keats and her sister had explored, to her grandparent's house in Pakistan, to her sister's bedside at the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead and back to a London of the seventies when her family first arrived, poor, homeless and hungry.
Consumed is an eloquent and moving excavation of a family's secrets and a sister's detective story to understand her sibling.
Foreword
A moving memoir about TB, grief, sisterhood, poverty and the reservoir of blame, guilt and unreliable memories from a troubled childhood in Lahore and London.
Additional text
I'm bowled over. It's a searing, brilliant, dazzling memoir of sisterhood, mental illness, art and grief. Heartbreaking and beautiful. I can't recommend it highly enough.
Report
Beguiling . . . The story and the writing have an unusual mystery about them, with striking imagery and a relatable insight into the darknesses and half-truths of family life . . . this one stands out for its eccentricity and elegiac splendour. Diana Evans, Guardian Summer Books
