Abandon Me: Memoirs

Melissa Febos

This linked collection of essays grabs ahold of the reader with the first sentence, “We had no television, no god, no family less than a day’s drive away, but we had stories,” and doesn’t release its grip until, well, ever. Febos delves deep into the inherent fear of abandonment in all of us, as well as the occasional desire to bolt from our own lives and the people we presume to love. From her fascination with her sea captain father to her long-distance love affair with a woman whose heart belongs to another, Abandon Me is both intense and vulnerable and woven together with visceral prosody.