A painter who can no longer paint, a musician who can no longer hear, a writer who can no longer write. #themuseumofwordsamemoiroflanguagewritingandmortality #georgiablain #memoir #braintumor #alzheimer’s #motherdaughter #friend @Edelweissbyabovethetreeline

What if the things you love most to do are taken away from you? What if the things that define you are lost? What if your life is to be cut ever so short? What if you had an incurable brain tumor?

The above questions were ones that needed to be faced by the writer Georgia Blain, who in 2015 was given an awful diagnosis, that of a brain tumor lodged in the portion of her brain responsible for language.

In this poignant memoir, Georgia writes so eloquently of the things that writing and reading are to her. She is well aware of her prognosis and as she reflects on her writing life as well as her life as a wife, daughter, mother and friend. She informs the reader of what the written word has meant to her, how it is part and parcel of who she is.

Not only faced with her illness, Georgia also is faced with her brilliant well known mother, Anne Deveson, being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and watch this once vibrant woman succumb to this heinous disease. Tragically, Georgia’s best friend, Rosie, is also diagnosed with the very same type of brain tumor as she has, and as she watches Rosie deteriorate she sees herself.

This memoir is Georgia’s tribute to who she was, what she was, and how her mother, her daughter, Odessa, and her friend, Rosie, meant the world to her. Her world of words, of writing was going away quickly but she left this memoir for us to learn to truly appreciate the gift of language. Definitely recommended to all of us who love the written word, the use of language, and the eloquence of dying.

Tragically, Georgia passed away in December of 2016.

Thank you to Georgia Blain, Scribe, and Edelweiss for making a copy of this tragic yet beautiful memoir.

This book is due to be published on February 5, 2019

and here’s the author:

Georgia Blain has published novels for adults and young adults, essays, short stories, and a memoir. Her first novel was the bestselling Closed for Winter, which was made into a feature film. She was shortlisted for numerous awards including the NSW and SA Premiers’ Literary Awards, and the Nita B. Kibble Award for her memoir Births Deaths Marriages. Georgia’s works include The Secret Lives of Men, Too Close to Home, and the YA novel Darkwater. In 2016, in addition to Between a Wolf and a Dog, Georgia also published the YA novel Special. She lived in Sydney, where she worked full-time as a writer.