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Somebody Loves You
- Narrated by: Mona Arshi
- Length: 4 hrs and 4 mins
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Somebody Loves You
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Summary
A teacher asked me a question, and I opened my mouth as a sort of formality but closed it softly, knowing with perfect certainty that nothing would ever come out again.
Ruby gives up talking at a young age. Her mother isn’t always there to notice; she comes and goes and goes and comes, until, one day, she doesn’t. Silence becomes Ruby’s refuge, sheltering her from the weather of her mother’s mental illness and a pressurized suburban atmosphere.
Plangent, deft, and sparkling with wry humor, Somebody Loves You is a moving exploration of how we choose or refuse to tell the stories that shape us.
Perfect for fans of Avni Doshi, Ocean Vuong and Abi Daré.
Mona Arshi was born in West London, where she still lives. She worked as a human-rights lawyer with the NGO Liberty for a decade before receiving a Master’s in creative writing from the University of East Anglia. Her debut poetry collection Small Hands was published in 2015, winning the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. Mona Arshi regularly appears on BBC Radio 4. Her poems have been published in The Sunday Times, The Guardian and The Times of India and most recently the London Underground.
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Critic reviews
A sharply drawn world of wonder in elegant and lean prose. A fresh, innovative novel that is an ode to families, coming of age and sisterhood.
-- Roger Robinson
A truly enriching read, Somebody Loves You is a glorious debut novel. I took this book with me everywhere and kept returning to it. I loved every perfect choice of word and turn of phrase in this vivid and tender, poetic and beautiful book.
-- Salena Godden
Each sentence has the cadence of poetry, each phrase perfectly chosen, each word correctly weighed. This is a novel which reminds us memory and narrative are often not complete but rather are crystallised glimpses, which turn like a kaleidoscope through our mind.
-- Andrew McMillan
What listeners say about Somebody Loves You
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Tamara
- 15-02-22
Poetic and touching child's view of mental health
Poetic, lyrical and a soothing listen due to the author's buttery voice, although difficult topics are covered including mental health and rape.
Ruby tells the story of her decision to stop speaking and her experiences of her mother's mental health, viewed from her perspective as a child.
Touching and insightful. Difficult to get into at first as events unfold in short chapters and almost at random like a stream of consciousness. Told as a series of vignettes, adding to a fragmented and surreal feeling.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Rachel Redford
- 16-11-22
Beautifully subtle and beautifully read
In 2015 Mona Arshi won the Forward Prize for her first collection of poems and this is her first work of fiction. It’s so brief that it’s not really a novel; in fact it’s undefinable. It’s delicate like a gossamer wing woven from beautifully chosen words.
The scenario (you can’t call it a narrative or a plot) flutters backwards and forwards in time for the most part spoken in young Ruby’s interior voice . She has chosen not to speak and gradually we learn why. Ruby and her sister ‘s mother suffers from serious mental illness which means sometimes she is there and sometimes she is not, like her father who ends up never there. Her only friend with whom she exchanges letters writes to tell her she can’t write to her any more because her father says Ruby is a ‘Paki’ (which she is not). The ‘chapters’ are fleeting vignettes of Ruby’s interior life, always subtle with a beauty that belies the ugly hard-hitting truths of Ruby’s voiceless life and that of her unprotected sister.
Mona Arshi reads her own work beautifully which makes it a pleasure to listen to. It will be really interesting to see how she follows up this poignantly titled Somebody Loves you.
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