Details:
- author: Mona Arshi
- full title: Somebody Loves You
- narrator: Mona Arshi
- genre: literary fiction
- topics: #family #relationships #metalillness
- content warnings: mental health, racism, physical and sexual assault
- publisher: Saga Egmont Audio
- publish date: 16.11.2021
- timing: 4:04:00
My Rating of the Audiobook:
- content: 💙💙💙💙
- narration: 💙💙💙💙💙
A teacher asked me a question, and I opened my mouth as a sort of
formality but closed it softly, knowing with perfect certainty that
nothing would ever come out again.
My Thoughts:
This is quite a unique work of fiction. Short and powerful vignettes that melt into a novel. Just like pieces of poems, words carefully chosen to sound just right. I’ve read a few similar works, where poems form a novel. But this one is still pretty unique in style.
Through these vignettes author tells us a story about Ruby and her family. Beautiful and sometimes heartbreaking. I didn’t know what to expect. But in the end, I liked it.
Narrated by the author, which is very good. Her voice is calm, and it suits these vignettes.
About the Author:
Mona Arshi worked as a Human rights
lawyer at Liberty before she started writing poetry. Her debut
collection Small Hands won the Forward Prize for best first collection
in 2015. Mona’s second collection ‘Dear Big Gods’ was published in 2019
(both books published by Liverpool University Press’s Pavilion Poetry
list). She has taught and mentored extensively including the
Arvon/Jerwood mentorship Programme and the Rebecca Swift Women’s
Poetry Prize. Mona has judged both the Forward and TS Eliot prizes as
well as the National Poetry Competition . She makes regular
appearances on radio and has been commissioned to write both poems and
short stories. Her poems and interviews have been published in The
Times, The Guardian, Granta and The Times of India as well as on the
London Underground. She is currently writer in Residence at Cley Marshes
with the Norfolk Wildlife Trust. Her debut novel Somebody Loves You
will be published with And Other Stories in Autumn 2021. She has
recently been appointed Honorary Professor at the University of
Liverpool. Mona is currently editing a book of black and Asian poetry
‘Nature Matters’ with Karen McCarthy Woolf which will be published in
Spring 2022 by Faber books.
