Having Spent Life Seeking
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Published:30th Apr '26
Should be back in stock very soon
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback - Signed Edition£18.99(9781787335370-S)
*Dua Lipa's Service95 Book Club Pick for June 2026*
'Amazing, it really moved me... Not something I've encountered in British literary fiction before' SHON FAYE
'If books can still change the world, this one most likely will' COLUM MCCANN
'A scorching story of love, change, homecoming and forgiveness' DAWN FRENCH
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 since Kae Tempest's last novel, Having Spent Life Seeking is about family and forgiveness; redemption and atonement; desire and abandon; selfhood and community. This book is about things we seek when we are hiding, and what finds us, if we can let ourselves be seen.
'A wonderful, moving and enlightening state-of-Britain novel' IRVINE WELSH
'A master-craftsman of deep feeling and linguistic intimacy' MAX PORTER
'Kae Tempest at his finest' ANTHONY SHAPLAND
'Unboundedly beautiful' MICHAEL PEDERSEN
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
Groundbreaking -- Dua Lipa
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
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 *
Having Spent Life Seeking will surely take its place in the trans canon * Guardian *
ISBN: 9781787335370
Dimensions: 224mm x 145mm x 33mm
Weight: 452g
352 pages