Octavia Bright

A WATERSTONES BEST BOOK OF 2023: BIOGRAPHY This Ragged Grace tells the story of Octavia's journey through recovery from alcohol addiction, and the parallel story of her father's descent into Alzheimer's. Over the course of seven years, life continues to unfold. Paths are abandoned, people fall ill, waters get choppy, and seemingly impossible things are navigated without the old fixes....

I kept putting myself in danger, and I couldn't make it stop. It rarely felt like a choice, though, of course, in some ways it was. It's only the death drive, my dear, Freud would likely tell me, if I lay my body down on his carpet-covered couch. Everybody needs a little oblivion. Besides, what is the fantasy of the...