The Iceberg: A Memoir

Praise for THE ICEBERG:"Truly extraordinary...one of the most haunting and achingly honest explorations of grief in recent memory...elegantly composed...like any great work of art, "The Iceberg" doesn't merely represent what it sets out to depict; it deftly communicates the emotional truth behind it."—Mary Elizabeth Williams, Los Angeles Times "This book is about love and witness...the pared-down quality of this memoir adds universality and is part of its tensile strength...Its cover should be stamped this way: 'Contains not one glib sentence.'"—Dwight Garner New York Times “The most moving book I have read in some time...It is a harrowing read, as you would expect, but also beautifully written and intensely powerful.”—Bill Bryson New York Times Book Review , "By the Book""Profoundly moving...the intertwining journeys of father and son make this intricate tale of life and death all the more powerful...exquisite."— Publishers Weekly "Riveting...poignant memoir...A poetic and moving chronicle of loss."— Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "An extraordinary memoir... one of the most astonishing books. I was transfixed by it. [Coutts'] work is marvelously wrought and quite experimental, yet says very blunt things."—Helen MacDonald, Guernica “A fierce love letter-cum-elegy... This is far more than just another book about grief.”—Marina Warner, Observer “A memoir quite unlike any other. It has the strength of an arrow: taut, spiked, quavering, working to its fatal conclusion...an extraordinary story told in an extraordinary way.”— Sunday Times “The most heartbreaking memoir of the year.”— Independent on Sunday “A book that clearly had to be written...to be read by anyone who ever pauses to consider our mortality.”— Sunday Telegraph “The Iceberg is mesmerizing, harrowing, and radiant... it is impossible to put it down.”— Daily Mail (UK)“An extraordinary vigil of a book, a work of art.”— Observer “Unflinching yet uplifting...[Coutts is] a chronicler of what it means to be human.”— Financial Times “The writing is lyrical, textured, perfectly paced; the sentences short so that we feel Coutts's moments of panic, her quickened heartbeat... [A] startlingly beautiful and inspiring pioneer text.”— Independent “[Coutts] chooses her words with such beautiful scrupulousness, never twisting or turning the knife of her story to exact our pity or admiration; her thought is like sensation, her descriptions of feeling are often like notes for a visual work... Her book is a homage to an exceptional man; it's also the work of an exceptional woman artist.”— Guardian "Marion Coutts’ account of living with her husband’s illness and death is wise, moving and beautifully constructed. Reading it, you have the sense of something truly unique being brought into the world – it stays with you for a long time after."—Bill Bryson (Wellcome Prize citation)“Extraordinary... Not quite like any other bereavement memoir.”— Evening Standard “Searing, shocking, unflinching, profoundly moving.”— Spectator Marion Coutts is an artist and writer. She works in sculpture, film and video and has exhibited widely nationally and internationally, including the Foksal Gallery, Warsaw; Yorkshire Sculpture Park; and the Wellcome Collection, London. She has held fellowships at Kettle¹s Yard, Cambridge and Tate Liverpool. She is a Lecturer in Fine Art at Goldsmiths College. She lives in London with her son. This is her first book.