<b>A <i>New York Times </i>bestseller: The “magnificent” memoir by one of the bravest and most original writers of our time—“A tour de force of literature and love” (<i>Vogue</i>).</b><br />  <br /> One of the <i>New York Times</i>’ “50 Best Memoirs of the Past 50 Years”<br />  <br /> Jeanette Winterson’s bold and revelatory novels have established her as a major figure in world literature. Her internationally best-selling debut, <i>Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit</i>, tells the story of a young girl adopted by Pentecostal parents, and has become a staple of required reading in contemporary fiction classes.<br />  <br /><i>Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?</i> is a “singular and electric” memoir about a life’s work to find happiness (<i>The New York Times</i>). It is a book full of stories: about a girl locked out of her home, sitting on the doorstep all night; about a religious zealot disguised as a mother who has two sets of false teeth and a revolver in the dresser, waiting for Armageddon; about growing up in a north England industrial town now changed beyond recognition; about the universe as a cosmic dustbin. It is the story of how a painful past, rose to haunt the author later in life, sending her on a journey into madness and out again, in search of her biological mother. It is also a book about the power of literature, showing how fiction and poetry can form a string of guiding lights, or a life raft that supports us when we are sinking.<br />  <br /> Witty, acute, fierce, and celebratory, <i>Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal?</i> is a tough-minded story of the search for belonging—for love, identity, home, and a mother.