Will This House Last Forever?

'Completely original, raw and warm' Evening Standard Books of the Summer
'Poignant... written with intelligence and tears' Ben Okri
'Nuanced, absorbing and moving... extraordinary' Observer
'Raw, poetic, beautifully formed' Daisy Johnson

When Xanthi Barker's father died when she was in her mid twenties, she could make no sense of her grief for a man who had been absent for most of her life. Her father, poet Sebastian Barker, had left Xanthi, her mother and her brother to pursue writing and a new relationship, when Xanthi was a baby. Growing up she had always struggled to reconcile his extravagant affection - a rocking horse crafted from scavenged wood, the endless stream of poems and drawings and letters, conversations that spiralled from the structure of starlight to philosophy to Bruce Springsteen - with the fact that he could not be depended upon for more everyday things. Though theirs was a relationship defined by departures, he always returned, so why should this farewell be any different, or more final?

WILL THIS HOUSE LAST FOREVER? is a heartfelt and wholly original memoir about the pain of having to come to terms with a parent's mortality, the way grief so utterly defies logic, and about learning to see the flaws in those that we love, and let them go.

• Offers powerful insights into the painful experience of losing a largely absent parent, and the way family breakup makes grief harder to process.
• As the daughter of poet Sebastian Barker and granddaughter of George Barker and Elizabeth Smart, Xanthi casts a very clear eye on the experience of growing up in a literary family - including the effects of her father's relationship with alcohol.
• Raw and strong on experiencing this kind of loss in one’s twenties: Xanthi writes blisteringly well on the impact of this on her own drinking and relationships.
• Ultimately it’s a joyful book, full of the intimacy of everyday moments, a book about grief that is also deeply life affirming.