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My Name Is Why

Lemm Sissay

Chilling, uplifting, emotional, authentic, it makes you want to hug your children close.  This book is one of the best memoirs I have read – one man’s simple testimony of what it was like for a black boy to grow up in care in the 70’s, care being the pivotal word as it was mainly absent.

Peppered with extracts from the Authority’s file on his progress, his interweaving narrative takes on a journey from a happy, secure boy to one dealing with rejection and alientation, untethered and trying to understand his own identity.  That he is now such a successfully creative man, is extraordinary.