The Life Inside: A Memoir of Prison, Family and Philosophy

The Life Inside is a powerful and enlightening book that offers a new insight into our justice system, failing prisons, and the complex lives being lived inside. It is written with sensitivity and humanity and provides a remarkable insight into prison life.

Format: Hardback
Length: 352 pages
Publication date: 03 February 2022
Publisher: Pan Macmillan

An education, according to Geoff Dyer, is "tense and intimate." A remarkable insight into prison life is provided in Amanda Brown's work, which is written with sensitivity and humanity. Terry Waite calls it "enriching, sobering, and at times heartrending," and Lenny Henry calls it "a wonder."

Can someone in prison be more free than someone outside? Would we ever be good if we never felt shame? What makes a person worthy of forgiveness?

Andy West teaches philosophy in prisons. Every day, he engages in conversations with individuals incarcerated about their lives, discusses their ideas and feelings, and listens as they explore new ways of thinking about their situation.

When Andy enters a prison, he also confronts his inherited trauma: his father, uncle, and brother all served time in prison. While Andy has built a different life for himself, he still fears that their fate will also be his. As he discusses pressing questions of truth, identity, and hope with his students, he searches for his own form of freedom as well.

The Life Inside is an elegantly written and unforgettable book. It combines memoir, storytelling, and gentle philosophical questioning to offer a new insight into our stretched justice system, failing prisons, and the complex lives being lived inside.

It strives with humor and compassion to understand the phenomenon of prison. The Sydney Review of Books calls it a "fascinating and enlightening journey," and 3AM calls it a "legitimate page-turner."

Weight: 462g
Dimension: 145 x 225 x 34 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781529032017