An incredibly moving book. I gravitated towards this book as I have rarely seen books that discuss father child relationships and even more so father-daughter. Xanthi is wholly honest and vulnerable which is hard to read but relationships are hard sometimes. Her fathers flaws are on full display and she does not hold back at detailing how this affected her. However, we often love people in spite of their flaws and this is what is shown in this book. Beautifully written and hard to put down, I was thoroughly grateful to be given a view of Xanthi’s relationship with her father.

A poignant memoir and an intense exploration of a father and daughter relationship. A very evocative read that will move readers. I don’t read much non fiction these days but this certainly appealed due to its honesty and absorbing writing.

Will this house last forever is a painfully aware story of a young woman coming to terms with her absentee father dying in her 20s. It's told in a series of different short stories about different aspects of her father's life from different perspectives. Parts of it were written in the second person perspective which is unique and a pleasant surprise to shift the focus of the story.

I recommend this to anyone who likes to read new writing in interesting ways, that play with perspectives and timelines. It’s a raw, sentimental but also detached perspective of a daughter trying to connect to her poet father after his death.

I rarely read non fiction but there was something about this book that appealed to me. My first thoughts, during the prologue was that nothing I had read previously had contained as much raw emotion as Will This House Last Forever. That feeling didn’t fade as I read more.

I don’t read a lot of poetry, I occasionally look for a certain poem if it is mentioned in a film or novel. I had never heard of Sebastian Barker. But not knowing anything about him didn’t impact on my appreciation of this novel. Instead it had me looking for more information, wanting to know more about him and his work.

This is a novel about a daughter talking to her father. She mulls over their relationship, their friendship, their disappointments and her devastation over his illness and eventual death. It all felt incredibly honest, Sebastian isn’t shown to be without faults. He had many, usually involving alcohol or his work but as Xanthi got older and started to care for him as his health deteriorated she accepted them more. But she also acknowledged that she often felt embarrassed or let down by him. She also accepted her own failings, especially with relationships, insecurities with friendship and also the problems caused by her own issues with alcohol and eating disorders.

Once I got used to all the other characters described as your wife, my brother, my mother I realised it was the only way it could be. This was just about father and daughter. Each of them could have had their own story to tell, their own memories of good times and bad.

Sebastian’s character really showed during this novel. Talented, charismatic but sometimes flawed. And his daughter loved him.

Absolutely fantastic read. I have loved this and been completely unable and unwilling to put this one down.
This is a great read which I will be highly recommending.