Exit Wounds - by Peter Godwin (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

An "eloquent...beautiful" (The Wall Street Journal) memoir from award-winning writer Peter Godwin about his evolving relationships with the women and places that shaped his life.Peter Godwin's mother is dying. Born in England, and having spent most of her adult life as a doctor in Zimbabwe, she now lies on a hospital bed in the partitioned living room of his sister's London home. Peter has spent his life missing his Zimbabwean childhood, a longing that does not diminish as he reflects on his time as a journalist on the frontlines of combat around the world, or life in New York with his English wife and transatlantic children. In his mother's final months, he must come to terms with everything his family was and wasn't: the secrets they kept from one another, the stoicism that sometimes threatened to destroy them, and the beauty of the wildly different places they called home. With generations of history behind him, Godwin lyrically brings us into the spaces which make us question and suffer, shows us how we can heal our own scars, and celebrate the lives we have among family and friends.

Review Quotes

"Exit Wounds is riveting, heart-rending and borderless in its brilliance and sympathy. What a book."
--Joseph O'Neill, author of Godwin

"EXIT WOUNDS is an apt metaphor for the leavings and losses in Peter Godwin's unforgettable new memoir. Here dislocation and exile are both geographical and personal: Where does a "cultural centaur" belong? Where is home when a marriage ends? What is home? I was so enchanted by Godwin's prose, his insights, his deft use of imagery, and the conversations between mother and son, husband and wife, brother and sister--some heartbreaking, some funny, some walking that tightrope between--that I didn't want this brilliant book to end. Exit Wounds, indeed."
--Maggie Smith, New York Times bestselling author of You Could Make This Place Beautiful

"EXIT WOUNDS is, quite simply, a masterpiece. Peter Godwin spins literary gold out of shards of heartbreak and humor. To see the world through Godwin's eyes is to go on a journey of exploration and experience everything old as new again and all that is new as the oldest of human stories."
--Amanda Foreman, author of A World on Fire: Britain's Crucial Role in the American Civil War

"A search-and-not-destroy mission to dissolve entrenched inhibitions, moral ambiguities, and the numbness of survivor's guilt....A quiet reminder of the possibility of rebirth."
--Celia McGee, AirMail

"Elegiac....Godwin contends with his wounds through reflection, humor, and quiet resolve." -The New Criterion

"Elegiac....Godwin contends with his wounds through reflection, humor, and quiet resolve."
--The New Criterion

"Eloquent...beautiful.... Mr. Godwin writes about his ma with affection and careful detail. Gentle humor is ever-present."
--Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal

"Finely wrought, contemplative, intimate, lyrical and searingly emotionally honest, Exit Wounds is a story of war and love and of tragedy. In a life that has been marked by loss: of a birthright, a nation, of family and finally of his marriage, Peter Godwin traverses the wilderness of grief towards redemption. Exit Wounds will leave you breathless and imprint itself indelibly upon your heart."
--Aminatta Forna, author of Happiness

"Often absurdly funny....Godwin has experienced enough loss to know that humor and grief can, and should, occupy the same space."
--Dina Gachman, the New York Times

"This is one of my favorite books of the last decade. It's so funny, so elegant, so erudite, and as a portrait of an extraordinary mother and the family she made, it is poignant, masterful, and unforgettable."
--Dave Eggers, author of A Hologram for the King

"This profound and moving memoir is an essential addition to Peter Godwin's brilliant oeuvre: he explores how we carry our imaginary homelands through loss and upheaval, how we make and remake our vulnerable selves. I loved this book."
--Claire Messud, New York Times bestselling author of The Burning Girl

About the Author

Peter Godwin was born and raised in Zimbabwe. He is the author of six nonfiction books including Mukiwa, which received the George Orwell Prize and the Esquire-Apple-Waterstones award, and When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, which won the Borders Original Voices Award. His book, The Fear, was selected by The New Yorker as a best book of the year. He has taught writing at Wesleyan and Columbia and served as President of the PEN American Center. He is an Orwell fellow and a Guggenheim fellow. He lives in New York City. Follow him on Instagram @PeterGodw1n and on Facebook.