Having Spent Life Seeking

A searingly beautiful tale of selfhood, community and redemption from the beloved poet and performer, Having Spent Life Seeking follows Rothko Taylor's return to their hometown in search of atonement and connection with the past they struggled through. ‘They were coming back to life. They were free and getting freer.’ Rothko Taylor has washed up with the tide, back in their hometown, Edgecliff. Fifteen years since they left it behind. The past is accelerating towards them: the skateboard kids on the high street that remind them of their teenage years, the splintered benches looking out to sea, where their mum Meg clutched her cans. The nice bit of town, where their dad Ezra tried and failed to build a happy home. And Dionne’s block. Beautiful, extraordinary Dionne, the only person who had ever looked at them and seen what was there. Back then, overwhelmed and full of fear, they sank beneath the surface into chaos. But they made it out alive. And this time, Rothko is determined that things will be different. A decade in the making, Having Spent Life Seeking is about family and forgiveness; redemption and atonement; desire and abandon; selfhood and community. The things we seek when we are hiding, and what finds us, if we can let ourselves be seen. MEDIA REVIEWS Thrilling... With Kae’s trademark tenderness and empathy, his love for these characters shines through the pages. Trust me, you will love them, too - Dua Lipa A master-craftsman of deep feeling and linguistic intimacy - Max Porter A wonderful, moving and enlightening state-of-Britain novel stuffed with memorable characters, depicting an individual’s struggle for self-realization in a society punitive to those who refuse to stand in its prescribed boxes - Irvine Welsh Amazing, it really moved me... Not something I've encountered in British literary fiction before - Shon Faye Unboundedly beautiful. Having Spent Life Seeking rings the heart like a bell - Michael Pedersen Having Spent Life Seeking is Kae at his finest, his uncanny skill of focussing on detail, noticing and observing ordinariness – all while allowing slippery truths to surface in this gentle, volatile book - Anthony Shapland A hallelujah of a book. A scorching story of love, change, homecoming and forgiveness. Kae at his beautiful, brilliant, best - Dawn French Kae Tempest brings into the literary realm that which others choose to leave outside. This is a remarkable act of literary bravery. If books can still change the world, this one most likely will. Narrative-driven, stuffed with soul, brimming with brokenness, rife with repair, this is a book for our splintered times. In Tempest's hands, redemption travels faster than the speed of light - Colum McCann A pure beautiful love story... Reverberates through the reader's heart - Lemn Sissay Agile shifts in perspective allow Tempest to extend his 360-compassion as he brings marginalised lives into sharp focus; he writes brilliantly about addiction and desire, too. Tough and lyrical, it’s a tale of survival and becoming that earns the grace of its moving conclusion - Daily Mail