Things in Every Room

An revelatory true story about love in many forms. Generous to its characters, their failing efforts and effortful failures, their determination to talk and know and touch, to be warm in a world that’s so often cold, yet the writing is never sentimental; instead, so gracefully and diligently honest, without a hint of artifice or judgement. A joyful revelation for the memoir form. I read it in a day, and reread it the next - for me, a modern classic. – Dizz TateA wise, empathetic, and beautifully crafted tale of addiction, love, and family strength. This is a memoir I will return to and recommend – Frances WilsonA heartfelt first book about losing your father and the struggle to move on when you keep doing ‘all the wrong things’. The battle, for herself and others, is with addiction - to drink, drugs, family, work, love and ‘memories hiding under memories’. This is memoir at its most candid, tragic but funny and with an eye for telling detail that few writers can match – Blake MorrisonThings in Every Room is written straight from the heart, like the best memoirs. Tender, compassionate and immersive, it is an intimate study of what it means to love a flawed father and survive the complex grief of losing him too young. This is one of the best memoirs I have read about the insidiousness of depression and addiction, and how it touches everyone in its orbit; it is so often the mother’s strength and constancy, and the safety of the family home, which allows for healing in the end. That, and love, and the power of the imagination – Lily DunnA beautiful heart-wrencher of a memoir – valiant, vulnerable, riddled with grief and drenched in love – Nicci GerrardMemoir can be a dangerous form of writing. You can document your life with courage and honesty, and that is valuable. Very rarely, however, a writer transforms their own life into art. Helen Longstreth is an artist and her book takes enormous risks. It is a masterpiece – Paul SpikeSo compelling, moving… it’s a real bravura thing the way her style speeds us along in a kind of wild present tense of living, embracing and wrestling with everything – Ardashir VakilA stunning memoir about family, addiction, and the struggle to find one’s place in the world and finding one’s voice as a writer – Nicholas BoggsAn arresting, distinctive self-portrait alive with the intimate rituals and chaotic spaces of family life and first loves. I read Things in Every Room with pleasure and admiration. – Chetna MarooTender and compelling, this memoir captures the frantic, reeling paradoxes of life with an addict: how love, joy, and heartbreak can collide within a single mealtime; the haze between light and dark, hope and helplessness. Helen Longstreth probes the impulse to lose oneself in the lives of others and asks vital questions about suffering. Her writing is both bruising and beautiful. – Sophie Calon

Helen Longstreth is a writer currently based in the UK. She has been published in the New Yorker and Paris Review. She studied previously at the University of Manchester and The University of California, Santa Cruz. Things in Every Room is her debut book, and she is currently working on her first novel.