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You Could Make This Place Beautiful
- A Memoir
- Narrated by: Maggie Smith
- Length: 7 hrs and 48 mins
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Publisher's Summary
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NPR Best Book of the Year • Time Best Book of the Year • Oprah Daily Best Memoir of the Year
“A bittersweet study in both grief and joy.” —Time
“A sparklingly beautiful memoir-in-vignettes” (Isaac Fitzgerald, New York Times bestselling author) that explores coming of age in your middle age—from the bestselling poet and author of Keep Moving.
“Life, like a poem, is a series of choices.”
In her memoir You Could Make This Place Beautiful, poet Maggie Smith explores the disintegration of her marriage and her renewed commitment to herself. The book begins with one woman’s personal heartbreak, but its circles widen into a reckoning with contemporary womanhood, traditional gender roles, and the power dynamics that persist even in many progressive homes. With the spirit of self-inquiry and empathy she’s known for, Smith interweaves snapshots of a life with meditations on secrets, anger, forgiveness, and narrative itself. The power of these pieces is cumulative: page after page, they build into a larger interrogation of family, work, and patriarchy.
You Could Make This Place Beautiful, like the work of Deborah Levy, Rachel Cusk, and Gina Frangello, is an unflinching look at what it means to live and write our own lives. It is a story about a mother’s fierce and constant love for her children, and a woman’s love and regard for herself. Above all, this memoir is “extraordinary” (Ann Patchett) in the way that it reveals how, in the aftermath of loss, we can discover our power and make something new and beautiful.
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- RB
- 2023-05-17
Wonderful
This is a lovely book, beautifully written and perfectly narrated. A good read/listen for anyone going through a change/transition.
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- Anonymous User
- 2024-03-14
This book spoke directly to my soul.
This book was and is magical. Yes, magical. If you have been through heartbreak and betrayal, this memoir will help unlock your heart and move you forward. I never imagined a book would resonate with my being so profoundly. For the first time in three years, I know I am not alone. Thank you, Maggie.
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- Amanda LePiane
- 2024-01-04
Loved it. It’s gut wrenching
What a sad story with light at the end of great listen. I loved listening to the authors voice tell her story.
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- Julie
- 2024-02-26
The magnificence of words.
Smith is truly an architect, artist and alchemist of words. I felt a connection to her story in a way I could not have fathomed. Listening to her read the memoir made it all the more powerful. I will be purchasing a hard copy so that I can savour and re-read the words again.
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- Amazon Customer
- 2023-05-17
Highly recommend
This book is so beautifully written. So honest and poetic. It moved me to tears at times. Maggie Smith gives words to feeling I believe many women are struggling to express. It’s her story but I think we can all find ourselves in this story as well.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Jeanni Nantais
- 2023-09-07
Resonant, Authentic, and inspirational
Listening to Maggie’s story felt like I was swimming in my own. I felt very word deeply.
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- B
- 2024-01-11
love this book through and through
Definitely one of my best listens ever. I felt it in all the ways. Amazing listen,and/ or read, for all mothers out there. Superb narration by the author.
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