{"product_id":"waking-up-in-toytown-by-john-burnside-9781529962871","title":"Waking Up in Toytown","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith wit, precision and grace, John Burnside's second memoir traces the aftershocks of a troubled childhood into troubled adulthood. With a new introduction by Sarah Perry.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Among the best writers of his generation, fully voiced and perfectly pitched' – Andrew O'Hagan\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the early 80s, after a decade of drug abuse and borderline mental illness, John Burnside resolved to escape his addictive personality and find calm in a 'Surbiton of the mind.' But the suburbs are not quite as normal as he had imagined, and he relapses into chaos.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eHe encounters a homicidal office worker who is obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock and Petula Clark, an old lover, with whom he reprises a troubled, masochistic relationship and, finally, the seemingly flesh-and-blood embodiments of all his private phantoms, as he drifts further into unreality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe second of John Burnside's extraordinary trilogy of memoirs, \u003cem\u003eWaking Up in Toytown\u003c\/em\u003e is the story of one man's search for sanity - but also the story of love that outgrows its restraints and a scorching enquiry into the soul, from one of our greatest contemporary writers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e'Burnside's memoir deserves to become a classic. Has anyone written about the direct experience of mental illness with such scrupulous observation and wit?' – Daily Express\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Penguin Random House NZ","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46549557018860,"sku":"9781529962871","price":30.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9781529962871.jpg?v=1750028316","url":"https:\/\/bookhero.live\/products\/waking-up-in-toytown-by-john-burnside-9781529962871","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}