A searing, deeply moving memoir about family, love, loss, and
forgiveness from the critically acclaimed, bestselling National Book
Award-winning author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time
Indian.
Family relationships are never simple. But Sherman Alexie's bond with
his mother Lillian was more complex than most. She plunged her family
into chaos with a drinking habit, but shed her addiction when it was on
the brink of costing her everything. She survived a violent past, but
created an elaborate facade to hide the truth. She selflessly cared for
strangers, but was often incapable of showering her children with the
affection that they so desperately craved. She wanted a better life for
her son, but it was only by leaving her behind that he could hope to
achieve it. It's these contradictions that made Lillian Alexie a
beautiful, mercurial, abusive, intelligent, complicated, and very human
woman.
When she passed away, the incongruities that defined his mother shook
Sherman and his remembrance of her. Grappling with the haunting ghosts
of the past in the wake of loss, he responded the only way he knew how:
he wrote. The result is a stunning memoir filled with raw, angry, funny,
profane, tender memories of a childhood few can imagine, much less
survive. An unflinching and unforgettable remembrance, You Don't Have
to Say You Love Me is a powerful, deeply felt account of a complicated
relationship.
