The Indigo Press snaps up 'extraordinary' memoir from Joinson
The Indigo Press has snapped up The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things: A Year of Salvage, a memoir from Suzanne Joinson.
Founder and publisher Susie Nicklin acquired world rights from Rachel Calder at the Sayle Literary Agency. The book is a lead title for the publisher who is presenting it at Frankfurt Book Fair 2023 with publication set for September 2024.
Joinson grew up on a council estate in Crewe in the 1980s where her parents were followers of The Divine Light Mission cult: "This clash of class and counterculture destroyed her family, leaving a legacy of turmoil and poverty." Now, in The Museum of Lost and Fragile Things, Joinson explores mother-daughter relationships and inherited class-based trauma in a "moving, delicately-woven account of coming to terms with a complicated past".
Joinson is also the author of two novels, A Lady Cyclist’s Guide to Kashgar (Bloomsbury) and The Photographer’s Wife (Bloomsbury), and won the New Writing Ventures Award for Creative Non-Fiction.
She commented: "This memoir shares my experience of growing up in Crewe with parents who were part of The Divine Light Mission. Along the way, I lost almost everything I ever owned. By pulling together a museum of myself, I explore complex family relationships full of pain, but also love. It’s a hugely personal book, of course, and the team at The Indigo Press have been amazing. I am very excited about it going out into the world."
Nicklin added: "How does a child cope when their possessions are destroyed every six months? How does she respond when her parents eventually decide their devotion was misplaced? How can she participate in society through art, and how can she create a home for her family when that concept is so alien? I am
deeply impressed with both the seriousness and the lack of ego in this extraordinary memoir and can’t wait to share it with readers worldwide."
