And: a memoir of my mother

by Isabel Adonis

Simultaneously personal and universal, and told in the rhythms of an oral story, this beautifully musical and multi-layered book examines the divisiveness of colour, alienation, the impact of colonialism on social culture, and what it means to be ‘mixed’.

176 pages, Paperback

Published September 27, 2022

Reviews

[Robert Macintosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

A hypnotic book that draws the reader into a North wales village community familiar from One Moonlit Night. The feel is somewhat reminiscent of Under Milkwood: A Play for Voices, but without the sentimentality that tends to overlay so much of Welsh writing in English.

Rather there is a clear description of how division and exclusion are the basis of identity. It is shown through the eyes of one who is Welsh and not Welsh, White and non-white, privileged and deprived, (hence the title, And) looking at her parents, their coming together and splitting apart. There is no lecture, but important insights into issues of race and feminism are there to be picked up from the simple, yet poetic writing.

This is not only a very enjoyable read, it is an important book for Wales and the world; it has a healing power. And I have hardly begun - there is so much more to be said.