This Is Not My Life: A Memoir of Love, Prison, and Other Complications - Softcover

Schoemperlen, Diane

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9781443434218: This Is Not My Life: A Memoir of Love, Prison, and Other Complications

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1443434213 ISBN 13: 9781443434218

Publisher: Harper Perennial, 2017

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“Never once in my life had I dreamed of being in bed with a convicted killer.”

For almost six turbulent years, award-winning writer Diane Schoemperlen was involved with a prison inmate serving a life sentence for second-degree murder. The relationship surprised no one more than her. How do you fall in love with a man with a violent past?

This Is Not My Life is the story of the romance between Diane and Shane—how they met and fell in love, how they navigated the obstacles of passes and visits and parole hearings and, eventually, how things fell apart, were reconciled and then fell apart for good.

In this candid, often wry, sometimes disturbing memoir, Schoemperlen takes us inside a complex and difficult relationship as she journeys through the prison system with Shane. Not only did this experience enlarge her capacity for both empathy and compassion, but it also forced her to more deeply examine herself.

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From the Back Cover:

FINALIST FOR THE RBC TAYLOR PRIZE FOR LITERARY NON-FICTION Longlisted for the BC National Award for Canadian Non-Fiction A Globe and Mail, National Post, Hill Times, Winnipeg Free Press, and CBC Best Book of the Year

“Never once in my life had I dreamed of being in bed with a convicted killer.”

This Is Not My Life is the story of the romance between Diane and Shane—how they met and fell in love. How they navigated the obstacles of visits and parole hearings, disapproving friends and family members. How, when Shane was paroled into “the real world,” Diane made room in her life for a man who had been institutionalized for three decades. And how, eventually, things fell apart, were reconciled, and then fell apart for good.

In this candid, often wry, always compellingly readable memoir, Schoemperlen takes us inside a complex and difficult relationship as she journeys through the prison system with Shane. Not only did this relationship enlarge her capacity for both empathy and compassion, but it also forced her to more deeply examine herself.

About the Author:

Diane Schoemperlen is the Governor General’s Award winning author of twelve works of fiction and non-fiction, most recently By the Book: Stories and Pictures, a collection illustrated with her own full-colour collages, which was longlisted for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award. She is a recipient of the Marian Engel Award from the Writers’ Trust of Canada.

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