Next of Kin: A Memoir

For a limited time we have copies signed by Gabrielle Hamilton.

Gabrielle Hamilton’s Blood, Bones & Butter became a modern classic of memoir for its exacting honesty and sharp, unvarnished prose. In Next of Kin, she turns that same gaze inward once more, returning to the subject of her family—this time with even greater clarity and less expectation of comfort.

Hamilton grew up admiring the flair and force of her parents and siblings. But as she reconstructs the emotional architecture of her childhood and its aftermath, a different picture emerges: of people whose independence masked a deeper disconnect, and whose personal brilliance often came at the expense of mutual understanding.

Where Blood, Bones & Butter tracked her early years and career in the kitchen, this new memoir focuses almost entirely on family—its frictions, estrangements, and the unfinished business that time rarely resolves on its own.

Written with the same biting dialogue and unflinching candor that earned Hamilton her reputation, Next of Kin offers a piercing account of one family’s dissolution. What begins in grief becomes something more expansive: a meditation on how we shape our stories, and what can happen when we finally stop trying to soften them.

Hardcover.