Having Spent Life Seeking

Thrilling… With Kae’s trademark tenderness and empathy, his love for these characters shines through the pages. Trust me, you will love them, too – Dua Lipa
A master-craftsman of deep feeling and linguistic intimacy – Max Porter
A wonderful, moving and enlightening state-of-Britain novel stuffed with memorable characters, depicting an individual’s struggle for self-realization in a society punitive to those who refuse to stand in its prescribed boxes – Irvine Welsh
Amazing, it really moved me… Not something I’ve encountered in British literary fiction before – Shon Faye
Unboundedly beautiful. Having Spent Life Seeking rings the heart like a bell – Michael Pedersen
Having Spent Life Seeking is Kae at his finest, his uncanny skill of focussing on detail, noticing and observing ordinariness – all while allowing slippery truths to surface in this gentle, volatile book – Anthony Shapland
A hallelujah of a book. A scorching story of love, change, homecoming and forgiveness. Kae at his beautiful, brilliant, best – Dawn French
Kae Tempest brings into the literary realm that which others choose to leave outside. This is a remarkable act of literary bravery. If books can still change the world, this one most likely will. Narrative-driven, stuffed with soul, brimming with brokenness, rife with repair, this is a book for our splintered times. In Tempest’s hands, redemption travels faster than the speed of light – Colum McCann
A pure beautiful love story… Reverberates through the reader’s heart – Lemn Sissay
Agile shifts in perspective allow Tempest to extend his 360-compassion as he brings marginalised lives into sharp focus; he writes brilliantly about addiction and desire, too. Tough and lyrical, it’s a tale of survival and becoming that earns the grace of its moving conclusion * Daily Mail *

KAE TEMPEST has been putting words together since he was a teenager. He has published plays, poetry collections, non-fiction, a Sunday Times-bestselling novel and has released six studio albums. In 2013 Tempest won the Ted Hughes Award, making him the youngest ever poet to receive it. He was named a Next Generation Poet in 2014, a once-in-a-decade honour, and in the same year he received the first of two Mercury Prize nominations. He is the only person to have achieved both accolades. In 2021 he was awarded the Silver Lion in Venice for his work as a playwright and in 2023 he won an Ivor Novello for his songwriting. His books have been translated into multiple languages and published to critical acclaim around the world. He hopes he will continue putting words together for the rest of his life.

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