Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?

Jeanette Winterson

Oct 2011 · Random House

About this ebook

The shocking, heart-breaking - and often very funny - true story behind Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit.

In 1985 Jeanette Winterson's first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, was published. It was Jeanette's version of the story of a terraced house in Accrington, an adopted child, and the thwarted giantess Mrs Winterson. It was a cover story, a painful past written over and repainted. It was a story of survival.

This book is that story's the silent twin. It is full of hurt and humour and a fierce love of life. It is about the pursuit of happiness, about lessons in love, the search for a mother and a journey into madness and out again. It is generous, honest and true.

‘Unforgettable... It’s the best book I have ever read about the cost of growing up’ Daisy Goodwin, Sunday Times

**ONE OF THE GUARDIAN'S 100 BEST BOOKS OF THE 21st CENTURY**

Ratings and reviews

Jeanette is fascinating.... she has such a unique style of writing which is not like anything I have read before. It almost feels as though she is sat in front of you talking you through her life.

Beautiful ending

Excellent

About the author

Jeanette Winterson CBE was born in Manchester. She published her first novel, Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, at twenty-five. Over two decades later she revisited that material in her internationally bestselling memoir Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?. Winterson has written thirteen novels for adults and two previous collections of short stories, as well as children's books, non-fiction and screenplays. She is Professor of New Writing at the University of Manchester. She lives in the Cotswolds in a wood and in Spitalfields, London.