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Praise for THE ICEBERG (2014):

'It is a memoir quite unlike any other. It has the strength of an arrow: taut, spiked, quivering, working to its fatal conclusion… An extraordinary story told in an extraordinary way' Sunday Times

'Intimate and unflinching, this is a stunning record… miraculous… magnificent… [Marion] chooses her words with such beautiful scrupulousness, never twisting or turning the knife of her story to exact our pity or admiration; her thought is like sensation, her descriptions of feeling are often like notes for a visual work' Guardian

'An exquisitely expressed portrait of three lives operating in the shadow of catastrophe…in a language that is as vivid as it is poetic. The Iceberg is a book about death, certainly, but it’s also about survival. The miracle here is not only in Coutts coming through such an ordeal, but in finding the wherewithal to observe it, unpick its complex psychology, and commit it to paper. This is human trauma, profoundly and beautifully told' Fiona Sturges, Independent

'Coutts's prose blinds and burns you, but it is also purifying. It is like that moment when an optician finally drops in the correct lens and you suddenly read the chart to the final line. What shimmers even more brightly than Coutts's honest is the force behind it: the quality of her love for her husband and son, and the intensity of their love for her... The book's truth is so pure and compressed, as though Coutts had condensed the coal of her experience into a diamond. Encountering it is like a near-death experience, at once traumatic and profoundly, permanently illuminating. Love itself is in these pages: not a representation of love, but love, pure and simple. The book reeks of it' New York Times

'[T]he most moving book I have read in some time... It is a harrowing read, as you would expect, but also beautifully written and intensely powerful' Bill Bryson, Wellcome Prize Judge 2014

'[The Iceberg] has the power to astound… A marvellous book… it ought to be read by anyone who ever pauses to consider our mortality' Telegraph

'Lyrical, textured, perfectly paced… [A] startlingly beautiful and inspiring pioneer text' Marcus Field, Independent

'An exquisitely expressed portrait of three lives operating in the shadow of catastrophe…in a language that is as vivid as it is poetic. The Iceberg is a book about death, certainly, but it’s also about survival. The miracle here is not only in Coutts coming through such an ordeal, but in finding the wherewithal to observe it, unpick its complex psychology, and commit it to paper. This is human trauma, profoundly and beautifully told' Fiona Sturges, Independent

'This book bowls me over with its beauty and profundity, and it seems a new kind of thinking in itself, a work of word art unlike any other' Laura Cumming

'Seeing is an action, Marion Coutts says, like aiming or hitting. And writing, in her hands, becomes yet more so, harsh and fierce and beautiful in this shocking book' Jenny Turner

'Dazzling, devastating... Coutts achieves something extraordinary - she's created one of the most haunting and achingly honest explorations of grief in recent memory... The Iceberg doesn't merely represent what it sets out to depict; it deftly communicates the emotional truth behind it' LA Times

'Poignant and powerful... Coutts' memoir unfolds in the most breathtaking, heart-stopping prose. She tells it like it is, brutally and unflinchingly, but her original thoughts, acute observations, candid feelings and brittle poetry combine to work wonders, compelling the reader to salute her and accompany her to the book's tragic end. [The] last 10 pages could be the most moving you will encounter all year. We close her book and emerge stuned yet transformed from a singular reading experience' Star Tribune

Keywords:

Marion Coutts, Tom Lubbock, Art, Language, Brain tumour, memoir, sculpture, photography, Wellcome Book Prize 2015, Samuel Johnson prize, Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction 2014, shortlist, Costa Biography Award 2015, shortlist Pol Roger Duff Cooper Award 2015 shortlist Guardian First Book Award 2014 longest National Book Critics Circle Awards of America 2017, finalist Mandarin edition 2015: Simplified Chinese edition 2017: Spanish edition 2017: US edition 2016 Audible Audiobook 2016

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Departments, Centres and Research Units:

Art

Date:

2014

Item ID:

21068

Date Deposited:

22 Sep 2017 10:01

Last Modified:

29 Apr 2020 16:34

URI:

https://research.gold.ac.uk/id/eprint/21068