The Fragments of my Father: A memoir of madness, love and being a carer by Sam Mills. Advance Reader Copy (eARC) from the publisher via Netgalley included. No affiliate links used. Read my full disclosure policy here.
The Fragments of my Father by Sam Mills is part memoir and part literary biography.
When Sam Mills' mother is diagnosed with cancer in 2010, Mills moves back into the family home to care for her and her father. Mills' father has a rare form of schizophrenia, one that is accompanied by bouts of catatonia. Following her mother's death in 2012, Mills became her father's primary carer.
Mills shares the impact that caring has on all aspects of her life; familial relationships, personal relationships, her work as an author and publisher, and her financial situation. She also brings us back to her childhood, when she didn't fully understand the reasons for her father's frequent absences.
Mills weaves her personal experience together with an examination of the history of caring and an account of the lives of Leonard Woolf, who cared for his wife Virginia Woolf, and F Scott Fitzgerald, who cared for his wife Zelda.
This combination provides scope for Mills' exploration of how the possible links between madness and creativity were viewed in the past and how that has or has not changed.
The Fragments of my Father is a deeply affecting read that shows the complexities of caring for a loved one.
The Fragments of my Father: A memoir of madness, love and being a carer by Sam Mills is published by 4th Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins, and is available in hardback, paperback, ebook, and audiobook format.