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Rather than an invitation to voyeurism, this memoir is a serious examination of how and why-particularly how a group can match its power with enough dysfunction that its members become suicidal. Stott's look into her father's misguidedness offers readers a simultaneous warning and empathic embrace. -Booklist In this compelling memoir, Stott (Darwin's Ghost) peers deeply into her family history in order to uncover the reasons her family, particularly her father, were immersed in the Exclusive Brethren, a branch of the Christian evangelical movement Plymouth Brethren that shuns books and mainstream culture. . . . Stott is able to distance herself from her difficult childhood and brilliantly capture the challenges of her family's days in the brethren. -Publishers Weekly A compelling story of childhood deprivation, liberation, and, ultimately, hope. -Kirkus Reviews A marvelous, strange, terrifying book, somehow finding words both for the intensity of a childhood locked in a tyrannical secret world, and for the lifelong aftershocks of being liberated from it. -Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill Writers are forged in strange fires, but none stranger than Rebecca Stott's. By rights, her memoir of her father and her early childhood inside a closed fundamentalist sect obsessed by the Rapture ought to be a horror story. But while the historian in her is merciless in exposing the cruelties and corruption involved, Rebecca the child also lights up the book, existing in a world of vivid play, dreams, even nightmares, so passionate and imaginative that it helps explain how she survived, and-even more miraculous-found the compassion and understanding to do justice to the story of her father and the painful family life he created. -Sarah Dunant, author of The Birth of Venus

Rather than an invitation to voyeurism, this memoir is a serious examination of how and why--particularly how a group can match its power with enough dysfunction that its members become suicidal. Stott's look into her father's misguidedness offers readers a simultaneous warning and empathic embrace. --Booklist In this compelling memoir, Stott (Darwin's Ghost) peers deeply into her family history in order to uncover the reasons her family, particularly her father, were immersed in the Exclusive Brethren, a branch of the Christian evangelical movement Plymouth Brethren that shuns books and mainstream culture. . . . Stott is able to distance herself from her difficult childhood and brilliantly capture the challenges of her family's days in the brethren. --Publishers Weekly A compelling story of childhood deprivation, liberation, and, ultimately, hope. --Kirkus Reviews A marvelous, strange, terrifying book, somehow finding words both for the intensity of a childhood locked in a tyrannical secret world, and for the lifelong aftershocks of being liberated from it. --Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill Writers are forged in strange fires, but none stranger than Rebecca Stott's. By rights, her memoir of her father and her early childhood inside a closed fundamentalist sect obsessed by the Rapture ought to be a horror story. But while the historian in her is merciless in exposing the cruelties and corruption involved, Rebecca the child also lights up the book, existing in a world of vivid play, dreams, even nightmares, so passionate and imaginative that it helps explain how she survived, and--even more miraculous--found the compassion and understanding to do justice to the story of her father and the painful family life he created. --Sarah Dunant, author of The Birth of Venus Advance praise for In the Days of Rain Rather than an invitation to voyeurism, this memoir is a serious examination of how and why--particularly how a group can match its power with enough dysfunction that its members become suicidal. Stott's look into her father's misguidedness offers readers a simultaneous warning and empathic embrace. --Booklist In this compelling memoir, Stott (Darwin's Ghost) peers deeply into her family history in order to uncover the reasons her family, particularly her father, were immersed in the Exclusive Brethren, a branch of the Christian evangelical movement Plymouth Brethren that shuns books and mainstream culture. . . . Stott is able to distance herself from her difficult childhood and brilliantly capture the challenges of her family's days in the brethren. --Publishers Weekly A compelling story of childhood deprivation, liberation, and, ultimately, hope. --Kirkus Reviews A marvelous, strange, terrifying book, somehow finding words both for the intensity of a childhood locked in a tyrannical secret world, and for the lifelong aftershocks of being liberated from it. --Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill Writers are forged in strange fires, but none stranger than Rebecca Stott's. By rights, her memoir of her father and her early childhood inside a closed fundamentalist sect obsessed by the Rapture ought to be a horror story. But while the historian in her is merciless in exposing the cruelties and corruption involved, Rebecca the child also lights up the book, existing in a world of vivid play, dreams, even nightmares, so passionate and imaginative that it helps explain how she survived, and--even more miraculous--found the compassion and understanding to do justice to the story of her father and the painful family life he created. --Sarah Dunant, author of The Birth of Venus

Advance praise for In the Days of Rain Rather than an invitation to voyeurism, this memoir is a serious examination of how and why--particularly how a group can match its power with enough dysfunction that its members become suicidal. Stott's look into her father's misguidedness offers readers a simultaneous warning and empathic embrace. --Booklist In this compelling memoir, Stott (Darwin's Ghost) peers deeply into her family history in order to uncover the reasons her family, particularly her father, were immersed in the Exclusive Brethren, a branch of the Christian evangelical movement Plymouth Brethren that shuns books and mainstream culture. . . . Stott is able to distance herself from her difficult childhood and brilliantly capture the challenges of her family's days in the brethren. --Publishers Weekly A compelling story of childhood deprivation, liberation, and, ultimately, hope. --Kirkus Reviews A marvelous, strange, terrifying book, somehow finding words both for the intensity of a childhood locked in a tyrannical secret world, and for the lifelong aftershocks of being liberated from it. --Francis Spufford, author of Golden Hill Writers are forged in strange fires, but none stranger than Rebecca Stott's. By rights, her memoir of her father and her early childhood inside a closed fundamentalist sect obsessed by the Rapture ought to be a horror story. But while the historian in her is merciless in exposing the cruelties and corruption involved, Rebecca the child also lights up the book, existing in a world of vivid play, dreams, even nightmares, so passionate and imaginative that it helps explain how she survived, and--even more miraculous--found the compassion and understanding to do justice to the story of her father and the painful family life he created. --Sarah Dunant, author of The Birth of Venus

Advance praise for In the Days of Rain A compelling story of childhood deprivation, liberation, and, ultimately, hope. --Kirkus Reviews

Author Information

Rebecca Stott is a professor of English literature and creative writing at the University of East Anglia. She is the author of Darwin’s Ghosts: The Secret History of Evolution, the novels The Coral Thief and the national bestseller Ghostwalk, and a biography, Darwin and the Barnacle. She is a regular contributor to BBC Radio and lives in Norwich.

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