Wendy Parkins — Every Morning, So Far, I\'m Alive

Otago University Press 2019 Paperback, 220pp. Every morning, so far, I\'m alive is about what it\'s like to live in a world where shaking a stranger\'s hand, catching a taxi or touching a door handle are fraught with fear and dread. This memoir charts the author\'s breakdown after migrating from New Zealand to England: what begins as homesickness and career burn-out develops into depression, contamination phobia and OCD. Increasingly alienated from all the things that previously gave her life meaning and purpose - family, work, nature, literature - the author is forced to confront a question once posed by the young Virginia Woolf: \'How is one to live in such a world?\' . Beautifully written, intensely moving and threaded with self-deprecating humour, Every morning, so far, I\'m alive is about claiming the right to tell our own story and learning to embrace the risks that the messy unpredictability of life always entails. (ISBN: 9781988531618). Very Good.