Everywhere the Undrowned

“This stunningly lyrical memoir is a profoundly insightful glimpse into the complex and frightening consequences of parental neglect. As Smith’s voice naturally evolves from alienated to intensely present, the impressively concise narrative alternates between ethereal observations about everything from space to spiders and gut punches of pain, shame, revelation, and redemption . . . . A masterful literary memoir about caring for those responsible for our trauma.”—Kirkus Reviews (STARRED review)

“In lyrical, metaphor-rich prose fragments that mine the cosmos, television, and avian life for meaning, Smith offers a harrowing yet hopeful look at the long road to recovery. This cathartic personal history is difficult to shake.”—Publishers Weekly

“Everywhere the Undrowned is, somewhat unbelievably, Smith’s first book . . . . [it’s] a kind of prose poetry that recalls the work of famed writers like Denis Johnson and Raymond Carver . . . . not only a compelling memoir but a work of literature.”—Washington Post Book World

"A remarkable, understated memoir . . . . New Orleans is well worked over as literary territory, but Smith gives it new life . . . . a tribute to women who did what they had to, to survive abuse, yet still held on to their inner cores.”—Wilmington Star-News

"A keen insight into why it takes so long for women to speak out: it takes years of living with the memory of trauma to understand how it continues to silence you and shape your life.”—Psychology Today

“Each paragraph reads like a poem but urges you forward like the most compelling novel.”—Bitter Southerner

“A memoir of trauma, escape, recovery, and the winding, crooked path of secret-keeping.”—INDY Week

“Lyrical, haunting, and deeply moving. . . As gut wrenching as it is enchanting, as stunning as it is deeply imaginative. Smith’s story is an interrogation, a reclamation, a love story to the self, and a testament to the hard work of healing, and it will break you and enchant you and astonish you in all the most beautiful ways.”—North Carolina Literary Review

“This memoir celebrates the spiritual prowess of survivors and the intuition and empathy needed to overcome the unthinkable. . . . [Smith’s] book, honoring the gravity of decades-old trauma and encouraging healing as a lifelong act, is sure to bring solace to survivors living in silence.”—Booklist

“Everywhere the Undrowned offers an account of trauma and its aftermath more acute than any I have read. Reminiscent in places of Sylvia Plath at her sharpest and most bleakly funny, it deserves to become a classic.”—Emma Brockes, author of She Left Me the Gun: My Mother’s Life Before Me