Mama Amazonica by Pascale Petit- Signed Copy

Mama Amazonica is set in a psychiatric ward and in the Amazon rainforest, an asylum for animals on the brink of extinction. It reveals the story of Pascale Petit’s mentally ill mother and the consequences of abuse. The mother transforms into a giant Victoria amazonica waterlily, and a bestiary of untameable creatures – a jaguar girl, a wolverine, a hummingbird – as she marries her rapist and gives birth to his children.

From heart-breaking trauma, there emerge luxuriant and tender portraits of a woman battling for survival, in poems that echo the plight of others under duress, and of our companion species. Petit does not flinch from the violence but offers hope by celebrating the beauty of the wild, whether in the mind or the natural world. The cover design is by Dragana Nikolic.

'Beautifully sad, the imagery inexhaustible, the sorrow and torment both tempered and sharpened by the relish for language and the ingenuity of the imagination.' - Simon Armitage, Poet Laureate.

Petit joined us on stage for our inaugural Heligan Homecoming Festival; a celebration of music, literature, art, culture and food set in the enchanting Lost Gardens of Heligan. This signed copy is exclusively online.