The Orange Notebooks

Susanna Crossman is an essayist and award-winning fiction writer. Her bestselling memoir Home is Where We Start was published by Fig Tree, Penguin, in 2024. She has recent work in Aeon, The Guardian, Paris Review, Vogue and more. A published novelist in France ( L'ile Sombre (Delcourt), L'hopital le dessous des cartes (LEH)) she regularly collaborates with artists, academics and film-makers. When she's not writing, she works on three continents as a lecturer and clinical arts-therapist. Born in the UK, Susanna Crossman has lived in France for over half her life.

“Rather than offering a linear journey from devastation to healing, Crossman presents something far more complex: an unflinching exploration of loss that refuses easy consolation… The result is a novel that functions as both literature and testimony—a map of terrain most hope never to traverse, drawn with remarkable clarity and emotional truth.”—Jonathan Crain“A remarkable piece of writing… the author’s use of language is vivid and original.”—The Seaboard Review of Books“The Orange Notebooks is surely a grand and noble effort. Parts of Anna’s story absolutely gut the reader. Many passages command an immediate re-read for the sole purpose and joy of savour. “—Winnipeg Free Press“Beautifully told, heart-wrenching”—Bookmunch“Crossman blends the intimate and the mythical in this moving exploration of motherhood, loss, and the fragile hope that love might bend the boundaries of death.”—Open Book“The Orange Notebooks is stunning and luminous, a story that cuts back and forth in time to uncover the mysteries of Anna’s passion and grief. In lovely and intrepid writing, Susanna Crossman has given us a fiercely observed novel of shimmering beauty and loss, a deeply affecting meditation on ways that love can transcend unspeakable sadness.”—Luanne Rice, author of The Shadow Box and Last Day“Susanna Crossman brings a poet’s sensibility and great wisdom to her examination of a mother’s grief on the loss of her young son. Lyrical, moving, and masterful, this book, at its heart, is about love—for those who know us well, for those we hold most dear—and how we manage when that love is lost.”—Rachel Cantor, author of Half-Life of a Stolen Sister