Gargoyles
UK Publisher
Dead Ink Books
Date Published
April 8th, 2021
Six weeks after her fortieth birthday, Harriet is struck by a rare and life-threatening illness. An emergency hospital visit turns into an arduous, lengthy stay. Attempts at sleep only bring visions of soul-sucking gargoyles, the lurking demons manifesting Harriet’s fear of death, her relationship with her late father, and her dream of having a family.
A stunning blend of memoir and insightful essays on literary and film culture, from Giovanni’s Room to Anthony Hopkins, Tess of the d’Urbervilles to Joaquin Phoenix’s ‘Joker’, Harriet seamlessly interweaves personal experience with insightful cultural commentary that questions how we live, and thrive, with pain.
Gargoyles explores the power of illness, grief, love, loss, and memory, asking us to celebrate what is in front of us and to not take our lives and health for granted. Sometimes, this means we have to learn to live with the gargoyles.
Reviews
Both haunting and empowering, it’s unlike any other book you’ve read.
- The Face
Experimental and daring, tender and compelling; Gargoyles is a story of illness, trauma and self-knowledge that has burnt itself into my mind forever. I urge you to read this beautifully written and startling book.
- Rebecca Tamás author of Strangers & WITCH
This exquisite book will stay with me for a very, very long time. It is a dazzling account of trauma and recovery, but also a testament to the power of using beautiful writing to excavate our most important moments and find meaning in chaos. It is an astonishing achievement to take slippery subjects like pain, illness, and self-knowledge and render them so lucidly on the page. This warm and moving story is beautifully told. It is a gift, and I urge you to read it.
- Lucia Osborne Crowley, author of I Choose Elena and My Body Keeps Your Secrets
Harriet Mercer writes with exceptional grace, self-awareness and compassion as she gently takes us through some of the most difficult episodes in her life. I’m in awe of what she has accomplished in Gargoyles.
- Zeba Talkhani, author of My Past is a Foreign Country
The best paperback books of 2021.
- Stylist
*Florence Welch’s picks for Between Two Books May*
Gargoyles, a blend of memoir and essay, brilliantly captures in form and craft the disembodied experience of sudden and life-threatening illness.
- The TLS
Gargoyles is a considered exploration of [life and death].
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