Heartland: A Memoir - Paperback

by Neil Cross (Author)

From the creator of Luther: Told with absolute veracity and unsparing candor, Heartland is the memoir of an isolated little boy and the brutish stepfather he couldn't help but love

When Neil Cross was born, his mother suffered from severe postpartum depression and later admitted to trying to kill herself and her baby son. Then, when he was five, she "went out and didn't come back," leaving behind her children and their heartbroken father.

Two years later she returns and gains custody of Neil, taking him to live with her new partner, Derek Cross, who showers him with attention and love in a way that Neil has never known. Derek teaches him about music and books; he is patient but firm, and more reliable than Neil's mother.

But as Neil grows older he realizes his stepfather is more complicated than he seems. For all his love, Derek is a manipulator, an adulterer, a racist, and a con man. And he is the father whom Neil now loves.

With devastating honesty, Neil Cross explores the circumstances of this love--one of pleasant rewards but consequences too dire to predict.

Author Biography

NEIL CROSS is the author of the UK-published Christendom, Mr. In-Between, Holloway Falls, Always the Sun, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize, Heartland, and Natural History. He is the lead writer for the BBC's hit series Spooks, known as MI-5 on BBC America, and the creator of the upcoming BBC crime series Luther. Burial is his first work published in the United States. He lives in New Zealand with his wife and two children.