The memoir from Australia's much-loved comedian, Hannah Gadsby, whose stand-up show and self-described swan-song, Nanette, played to sold-out houses in Australia, the UK and the US. Its launch on Netflix, and subsequent Emmy and Peabody wins, took Nanette (and Hannah) to the world.
'There is nothing stronger than a broken woman who has rebuilt herself.' Hannah Gadsby, Nanette
Multi-awardwinning Hannah Gadsby transformed comedy with her show Nanette, even as she declared that she was quitting stand-up. Now, she takes us through the defining moments in her life that led to the creation of Nanette and her powerful decision to tell the truth — no matter the cost.
Gadsby's unique stand-up special Nanette was a viral success that left audiences captivated by her blistering honesty and her ability to create both tension and laughter in a single moment. But while her worldwide fame might have looked like an overnight sensation, her path from open mic to the global stage was hard-fought and anything but linear.
Ten Steps to Nanette traces Gadsby's growth as a queer person from Tasmania-where homosexuality was illegal until 1997-to her ever-evolving relationship with comedy, to her struggle with late-in-life diagnoses of autism and ADHD, and finally to the backbone of Nanette - the renouncement of self-deprecation, the rejection of misogyny, and the moral significance of truth-telling.
Equal parts harrowing and hilarious, Ten Steps to Nanette continues Gadsby's tradition of confounding expectations and norms, properly introducing us to one of the most explosive, formative voices of our time.
“Hannah is a Promethean force, a revolutionary talent...This hilarious, touching, and sometimes tragic book is all about where her fires were lit.” EMMA THOMPSON
‘Gadsby wields her craft like a weapon, lancing out the trauma and forcing us to look at it.’ THE GUARDIAN
‘As uproariously funny as it is profoundly furious.’ NEW YORKER on Nanette
‘The laughs of her show are a means to an end, which is, at its core, a ferocious attack on comedy itself.’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘Nanette is the kind of work that leaves you shaken. Not because it’s really funny (it really is), or because it’s equally heartbreaking, but because it finds a fusion of those two modes that’s incandescent.’
THE ATLANTIC
