Fourteen Ways of Looking - by Erin Vincent (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

Studded with moments of surprise, wit, and intellectual delight, this light-footed, piercing memoir of grief tracks reverberations of loss and acceptance across a lifetime.

When Erin Vincent was fourteen years old, both of her parents were killed in a traffic accident. Almost forty years later, the number fourteen began haunting Erin, appearing everywhere--in the books she was reading, in films, TV shows, and on the news.

The repetition felt significant, so Erin began to explore the number beyond her personal understanding. The result is Fourteen Ways of Looking, a memoir of magisterial fractals and a profound meditation on grief, memory, and the creative process.

Review Quotes

"Simply one of the best books I've read in ages. I read it in a reverie of blissed-out, horrified amazement. I can easily imagine it becoming a cultural touchstone like Max Porter's Grief Is the Thing with Feathers or Maggie Nelson's Bluets." --Sarah Manguso, author of Liars

"An astonishing formal experiment. The number fourteen becomes uncanny and arbitrary--both divine symbol and violent accident--as she remembers her younger self and tries to find patterns in chaos. An incredible achievement... unclassifiable, humane, and haunting." --Clare Pollard, author of Lives of the Female Poets

"Vincent brings to this astute exploration of personal grief the world's grief, the reader's grief, the planet's grief. All of time concertinas into these perfectly formed fragments that interrogate the number fourteen... This is an astounding work--resonant, intelligent, and generous." --Pip Adam, author of Audition

About the Author

Erin Vincent is the author of Grief Girl (Penguin Random House) which was named a New York Public Library Best Book and an American Library Association Best Book Nominee. Her work has appeared in Electric Literature, The Guardian, Meanjin, The Offing, and elsewhere. She holds an MA in creative writing from the University of Technology Sydney and is currently studying for a PhD in creative writing with a focus on fragmentary literature written by women in the 21st century. She lives in a little cottage with her lovely and talented husband, Adam Knott, and their lovely and talented cat, Little Eve.