A journal for lives that weren’t easy to tell.
263 questions about the years you don’t talk about.
Hardcover or paperback · 206 pages
Or get one question every Monday, free, by email.
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My son gave me one of those “tell us your life story” journals. I realized they’re written for people whose lives were easy to tell.
This one asks what actually happened. Including the parts you left out.
It’s for anyone who wants the real story written down before time takes it.
When I answered these questions myself, I expected the hard part to be remembering. It wasn’t. The hard part was deciding what to leave out.
A few of the 263 questions
- Who would you call at three in the morning? Read my answer →
- What did you promise yourself you would never repeat? Read my answer →
- What apology are you still owed, and by whom? Read my answer →
- What was never spoken about openly in your family?
- What did they survive that you have never had to?
- What is something you experienced as a child that you have never told anyone? Read my answer →
- When have you hurt someone physically, outside of self-defense?
Nobody buys their father a book that asks whether he ever cheated.
Nobody buys their mother a book that asks what she gave up, and whether she forgave her children for it.
Nobody buys anyone a book that asks about the year they did not want to be alive.
So nobody ever asks. And then they die, and it goes into the ground with them.
This is that book.
What Nobody Dares to Ask: A Legacy Journal of What Was Kept in the Dark. Room to answer in your own hand. A date beside every answer. The hard pages are marked before you reach them, and page six asks whether the book should be burned, kept guarded, given away while you’re alive, or left to be found. Skip whatever you like. Truth is invited here. It is never demanded.
Buy it for yourself. Or give it to someone brave enough to answer. If you’re giving it, page five is yours: you write why you gave it, and they read that before anything else.
Hardcover · 8.25 × 11 in (about 21 × 28 cm) · 206 pages — Amazon.com · Amazon.co.uk · Amazon.de
Paperback · 8.5 × 11 in (about 22 × 28 cm) · 206 pages — Amazon.com · Amazon.co.uk · Amazon.de
The hardcover is the keepsake. The paperback is the one to write in every day. More about the book
A question a week
Every Monday, one question from the book and my own answer to it, by email. For example: “Who would you call at three in the morning?”
Confirm once. Then one email every Monday. Unsubscribe in one click. Never sold or shared. Privacy
This week’s question
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Lies We Were Fed
What did you believe as a child that turned out not to be true? Content note: suicide.