Motherlands

<b>A <i>SPECTATOR </i>BOOK OF THE YEAR</b><b>¿A remarkable literary debut . . . Part memoir, part travelogue, <i>Motherlands</i> is ultimately an investigation of how we come to understand the past at all¿ </b><i><b>Guardian</b></i>Our creation stories begin with the notion of expulsion from our ¿original¿ home. We spend our lives struggling to return to the place we fit in, the body we belong in, the people that understand us, the life we were meant for. But the places we remember are ever-changing, and ever since we left, they continue to alter themselves, betraying the deal made when leaving. Australian writer Amaryllis Gacioppo has been raised on stories of original homes, on the Palermo of her mother, the Benghazi of her grandmother and the Turin of her great-grandmother. But what does belonging mean when you''re not sure of where home is? Is the modern nation state defined by those who flourish there or by those who aren¿t welcome? Is visiting the land of one¿s ancestors a return