{"id":1089984,"date":"2022-05-07T15:36:56","date_gmt":"2022-05-07T05:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shop.sl.nsw.gov.au\/?post_type=product&p=1089984"},"modified":"2023-08-31T13:48:13","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T03:48:13","slug":"bedtime-story","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/shop.sl.nsw.gov.au\/shop\/bedtime-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Bedtime Story"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the best-selling author of The Tall Man <\/em>and The Arsonist<\/em>, a personal tale about death, life and the enchantment of stories. With illustrations by Anna Walker.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let me tell you a story\u2026<\/em><\/p>\n

When Chloe Hooper\u2019s partner is diagnosed with a rare and aggressive illness, she has to find a way to tell their two young sons. By instinct, she turns to the bookshelf. Can the news be broken as a bedtime tale? Is there a perfect book to prepare children for loss?<\/p>\n

Hooper embarks on a quest to find what practical lessons children\u2019s literature\u2014with its innocent orphans and evil adults, magic, monsters and anthropomorphic animals\u2014can teach about grief and resilience in real life. From the Brothers Grimm to Frances Hodgson Burnett and Tolkien and Dahl\u2014all of whom suffered childhood bereavements\u2014she follows the breadcrumbs of the world\u2019s favourite authors, searching for the deep wisdom in their books and lives.<\/p>\n

Both memoir and manual, Bedtime Story <\/em>is stunningly illustrated by the New York Times <\/em>award-winning Anna Walker. In an age of worldwide uncertainty, here is a profound and moving exploration of the dark and light of storytelling.<\/p>\n

‘Everything you\u2019d ever want in a bedtime story \u2013 heroes and heroines, puzzles and dangers, invisible forces, birds, trees, beasts, poetry, sadness and joy. Stories within stories. I was spellbound from the start. As for the ending… I can\u2019t tell you that.’ Paul Kelly OA<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Chloe Hooper has a formidable talent to take complex stories and ideas and truths, and to distil them into a language of direct and powerful beauty. This is a story of grief and of patience, of hope and acceptance. It is also a reminder of the solace that books give us, and of how the imaginary worlds we dive into as children remain with is for all our lives, of how they guide us into adulthood and maturity. There is a quiet courage and strength in this book. It is both gentle and uncompromising,\u00a0<\/strong>a love letter to family and to literature that is bracingly unsentimental. I was profoundly moved, and profoundly grateful.\u2019 Christos Tsiolkas, author of The Slap<\/em> and Damascus<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018This book is a miracle of light and meaning-making from one of our finest writers. Venturing inward with extraordinary grace, Hooper explores \u2013 and extends \u2013 the long literary line surging with our deepest inherited wisdom about how to embrace our finite lives. The result is nothing less than the hero’s journey we have been collectively starving for. Telling you this is like trying to describe the sun; it is a book so powerful and beautiful \u2013 so utterly its own \u2013 that it can only be experienced directly.\u2019 Sarah Krasnostein, author of The Trauma Cleaner<\/em> and The Believer<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Exquisitely beautiful. This book is an act of love.\u2019 Anna Funder, author of All That I Am<\/em> and Stasiland<\/em>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘Deeply engrossing and honest, human, full of love and tenderness, with moments of sparkling humour in the struggle. I loved everything about Bedtime Story<\/em>. I loved particularly what it taught me about authors who write for children, the ways that writing and reading provides compensation, balancing the scales between loss and love.\u2019\u00a0Sofie Laguna, author of The Eye of the Sheep<\/em> and Too Loud Lily<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018I loved Bedtime Story<\/em> by Chloe Hooper so much! A sensitive & beautifully executed exploration of the power & purposes of storytelling.’\u00a0Kate Forsyth<\/strong><\/p>\n

‘Chloe Hooper is a beautiful writer… Her latest book is incredibly personal, yet she still weaves an outward curiosity that drives all of her non fiction; a compulsion to figure out the why, how, and if, of life.’ Zan Rowe<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018shows the power of words and literature to comfort us during the darkest moments of our lives\u2019\u00a0Readings, Best Non-Fiction of 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the best-selling author of The Tall Man <\/em>and The…<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":1095018,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"product_cat":[88],"product_tag":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBedtime Story - Library Shop - State Library of NSW<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/shop.sl.nsw.gov.au\/shop\/bedtime-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bedtime Story - Library Shop - State Library of NSW\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From the best-selling author of The Tall Man and The...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/shop.sl.nsw.gov.au\/shop\/bedtime-story\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Library Shop\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/statelibrarynsw\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-31T03:48:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com\/slnsw.shop-woocommerce\/production\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/17185210\/9781761103513.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1400\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1976\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@statelibrarynsw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/shop.sl.nsw.gov.au\/shop\/bedtime-story\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/shop.sl.nsw.gov.au\/shop\/bedtime-story\/\",\"name\":\"Bedtime Story - 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