NOMINATED FOR THE 2019 NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD FOR AUTOBIOGRAPHY ONE OF NPR'S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR SHORTLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE FOR NONFICTION SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE The acclaimed New York Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Velazquez shares a riveting true story “with as many twists and turns as any mystery” (Los Angeles Times) describing her mother’s mysterious kidnapping as a toddler in a small English coastal village—“an incredible and incredibly unusual book about family secrets” (Nick Hornby, The Believer). In the fall of 1929, when Laura Cumming’s mother was three years old, she was kidnapped from a beach on the Lincolnshire coast of England.…
"There are a few things going on here. First of all, I think that it is just a remarkably well-structured memoir, in terms of revelation piling upon revelation upon revelation. She’s plainly dealing with a family that has been very tight-lipped, and has tried to shut down all manner of secrets, about what has happened in family life. So I think it reads, especially in its tail end, in a very thriller-ish way as all of this information comes to light. Aside from that, Laura Cumming is just a tremendous writer. She is incredibly observant. She writes graceful sentences that really answer to the poignancy of this family that is fractured in a remarkable number of ways. I think her breeding (for want of a better word) as an art critic serves her well here. Some of the best parts of this book are close observations of family photographs and her attempt to forensically understand not just her mother’s history and the particular incident that sparks of all this, but just how all these family members relate to one another. I think it’s interesting how persuasive she can be by looking at a particular part of a photograph and drawing someone’s personality out of it. So it meshes remarkably well, especially when you consider that she was really presented with very flimsy evidence and a lot of tight-lipped relatives when she began pursuing the story. So it’s a remarkable achievement just on a research level and on the writing level. I honestly do not know. I would have to surmise that since we are dealing with a book that is dealing with family secrets . . . but we’re talking about a pretty long time ago, though. Her mother was abducted, I believe, in 1929. And it speaks to just how pervasive this close-lipped attitude was. So I think you have to factor in a certain fearlessness there as well, because I’m sure that Laura Cumming must have sensed that telling this story was going to frustrate, if not actively anger, many of her family members."
The Best of Memoir: the 2020 NBCC Autobiography Shortlist ·
fivebooks.com
"In 1929, Laura Cumming’s mother was kidnapped. Five days later, she was returned to the people she thought were her mother and father. This crime makes up the central mystery of Cumming’s gorgeously written memoir. But what could have been a satisfying whodunit is instead a close examination of collective silence and suppressed love. You will weep, you will mourn and you will wonder what it is you’ve never known – and never will – about your own family."
