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‘Drystone is as beautifully rendered as the walls De Garis creates’ - THE BOOKSELLER

'An incredibly powerful debut, Drystone - A Life Rebuilt is an account of survival, strength, and quiet transformation that stays with you long after the final page. Written with clarity and compassion, it reflects not only life’s hardest moments, but its tender, deeply human ones too. A life-affirming work.' -

Rebecca Smith, Author of Rural: The Lives of the Working Class Countryside

'A searingly honest, raw and visceral read... In short it is a triumph' - The Sunday Post

'Drystone doesn’t pull any punches, it’s shockingly frank but also has the most beautiful literary touch. The child picking up a satisfyingly smooth pebble, the adult surviving what is thrown at her.’ - Tracy King, author of memoir Learning to Think

'Absorbing, enraging, funny and moving, like a Scottish mixed-race Monica Heisey with bonus dry stone walling, De Garis unpacks the effects of racism, intergenerational trauma, and undiagnosed neurodivergence on her relationships and life, deftly interweaving the work of walling with the slow, deliberated work of rebuilding something beautiful, functional and sustainable' - Polly Atkin, author of Some of Us Just Fall

'Written with raw clarity, acerbic humour and emotional honesty... written from the perspective of a single life, but with a sensitivity to the depth and breadth of its underlying themes that will make it speak to many other lives' - Kat Hill, author of Bothy

'Honest, funny, direct and moving, this is a memoir of resilience and finding the life that suits you' - Books from Scotland