Fig Tree signs Crossman's utopian childhood memoir

Fig Tree has signed a deal for Home is Where we Start, by Susanna Crossman, a memoir of growing up in a utopian commune.

Helen Garnons-Williams, publishing director, has acquired UK and Commonwealth rights in an exclusive submission from Jessica Craig at Craig Literary. The memoir examines the author’s childhood in an international utopian commune, expanding on her Aeon magazine piece which went viral in September 2022. Fig Tree will publish Home is Where we Start in hardback in August 2024.

The blurb reads: "In the late 1970s, six-year-old Susanna moved with her mother and siblings to a utopian commune in rural England. For over 15 years, she lived inside a crumbling mansion with 50 adults and children, trying to remake the world.

"Decades later, with the benefit of hindsight, she returns to her own childhood with pressing questions. What happens to children when we try to abolish the family? What is it really like to be the product of a social experiment? And how can we criticise the damage caused by revolutions while retaining a belief in the power of change?"

Fig Tree described the book as “compassionate, luminous and thought-provoking". The publisher said: “Part personal memoir, part critical analysis, Crossman turns to leading thinkers in philosophy, sociology and ethics to examine the many meanings of family and home.”

Crossman said: “It’s a joy and privilege to be working with excellent editor Helen Garnons-Willams and the Fig Tree team. At our very first meeting the electricity crackled and it was clear that they would be the best publisher for Home is Where we Start.”

Garnons-Williams commented: “Susanna is an extraordinary writer, and in this lyrical, expansive and richly layered memoir she explores the troubling questions of responsibility, freedom, family and revolution with fierce intelligence and clear-eyed empathy.”

Craig said: "It is a dream-come-true to have connected Susanna Crossman’s memoir with Helen Garnons-Williams and Fig Tree. Susanna’s perspective on the impact of utopian, communal living on children blew me away when I first read her narrative, and will be illuminating, fascinating, relevant and moving to many readers.”

Crossman is based in Brittany, France, where she works internationally with hospitals and organisations as a clinical arts therapist, consultant and lecturer. Her writing has been featured in Aeon, the Paris Review and Berfrois alongside several anthologies. She won the 2019 Lovereading Short Story Award, and is also the author of a novel published in France as L’île Sombre with La Croisée. In April her novel was acquired by Bluemoose Books.