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Red Dust Road

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( 2,628 ratings, 334 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Red Dust Road by Jackie Kay is a poignant, heartfelt memoir tracing the author's journey of self-discovery from childhood to adulthood. Realising early that her skin colour differed from her adoptive parents, Jackie embarks on a search that leads her from Glasgow to Lagos to find her birth parents—her Highland mother and Nigerian father. The book explores themes of identity, belonging, and inheritance far beyond genetics, emphasising the power of love, memory, and cultural roots.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$3199
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This memoir will resonate with readers interested in adoption stories, multicultural identity, and personal journeys of self-discovery. Fans of literary memoirs with poetic flair and emotionally genuine storytelling will appreciate Kay’s narrative.

Book Hero thinking about your next read

An adoption memoir and soul-searching journey by former Scottish Makar Jackie Kay.

'What makes us who we are? My adoption is a story that has happened to me. I couldn't make it up.'

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS OF PICADOR BOOKS

You think adoption is a story which has an end. But the point about it is that it has no end. It keeps changing its ending.

From the moment when, as a little girl, she realises that her skin is a different colour from that of her beloved mum and dad, to the tracing and finding of her birth parents, her Highland mother and Nigerian father, Jackie Kay's journey in Red Dust Road is one of unexpected twists, turns and deep emotions. In a book remarkable for its warmth and candour, Kay discovers that inheritance is about much more than genes: that we are shaped by songs as much as by cells, and that what triumphs, ultimately, is love.

Taking the reader from Glasgow to Lagos and beyond, Red Dust Road is a heart-stopping story of parents and siblings, friends and strangers, belonging and beliefs, biology and destiny.

'Like the best memoirs, this one is written with novelistic and poetic flair. Red Dust Road is a fantastic, probing and heart-warming read' - Independent

Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.

Series: Picador Collection

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Praised for its warmth and candour, Red Dust Road is celebrated as a clear-eyed, witty, and unsentimental meditation on nature and nurture. Reviews highlight Jackie Kay's abundant wit and novelistic, poetic style, calling it a moving, spirited, and often amusing read. The book is described as humane, honest, and resolute, with happiness shining through its soul-searching journey.

Book Hero reading reviews

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781529077230

Publisher: Pan Macmillan

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 17 February 2022

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Picador

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 20.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 224g

Pages: 320

About the Author

Jackie Kay was born in Edinburgh. She is the third modern Makar, the Scottish poet laureate. A poet, novelist and writer of short stories, she has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. Her first novel, Trumpet, won the Authors' Club First Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize. She is also the author of three collections of stories with Picador, Why Don't You Stop Talking, Wish I Was Here, and Reality, Reality; two poetry collections, Fiere and Bantam; and her memoir, Red Dust Road. She is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University, and lives in Manchester, where she is currently Chancellor of the University of Salford.

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