The Parts of Him I Kept

The Gifts of My Father’s Madness

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Pub Date 27 May 2025 | Archive Date 31 May 2025

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Description

One cold night in April, Natasha’s father drove his car into the frigid water of New York Bay with her two-year-old half-sister in the backseat. She was the one to walk him past the column of hungry reporters demanding an explanation.

The headline in The Daily News read: Back from a Watery Grave. But Natasha’s experiences growing up with her schizophrenic father in the gritty New York City of the 1970s are not so easily captured in a single headline. How could she possibly convey the power of her father’s love in the face of this tragedy?

The Parts of Him I Kept is an intimate account of coming of age in the face of a father’s schizophrenic unraveling. In the tradition of Michael Greenberg’s Hurry Down Sunshine and Robert Kolker’s Hidden Valley Road, Williams explores the limits of our understanding of schizophrenia and chronicles the burden and privilege of caring for a mentally ill family member.

One cold night in April, Natasha’s father drove his car into the frigid water of New York Bay with her two-year-old half-sister in the backseat. She was the one to walk him past the column of hungry...


Advance Praise

“‘Is there a word for what gets said without language, how we carry the weight of the lives that come before us?’ This is one of the questions of this profound meditation on love and family. Natasha Williams offers us a portrait of America at a time when everything was in flux, when people searched for new ways to live, and (if they were lucky) ended up simply loving each other.” — Nick Flynn, author of This Is the Night Our House Will Catch Fire, Low and Another Bullshit Night in Suck City

“Read the first thirty pages of The Parts of Him I Kept, and I bet you would cancel your own wedding to read the rest of it. Natasha Williams has a hell of a story to tell, and she writes like an angel.” — Abigail Thomas, author of Still Life at Eighty

“A gifted work of graceful eloquence, this memoir is an homage to the universal power of tenderness.” — Lisa St. John, author of Swallowing Stones

“What elevates The Parts of Him I Kept to a timeless memoir is William’s ability to draw the reader into the vivid and lyrically rendered world of a father and daughter’s deep, abiding love for each other despite her father’s schizophrenia. She takes us on a journey that is poignant, hilarious, and yes, at times dangerous, even deadly. But in the end, Williams asks us to rethink the limit of what love can endure.” — Daisy Foote, author of Bhutan and Horton Foote: The Road to Home

“Natasha Williams achingly exquisite memoir takes us on a journey through complex trauma and unexpected tenderness, illuminating her path of self-discovery and providing real hope for those who long to heal.” — John Sibley Williams, winner of the Cider Press Review Poetry Award for Scale Model of a Country at Dawn

“In The Parts of Him I Kept, Natasha Williams balances compassion for her charismatic, schizophrenic father, and her own need for boundaries with a man who thought he could read minds. What is remarkable about the author’s vivid, elegantly crafted prose, is that even at her father’s most heinous moments, Williams never tips into pity—for him or for herself.” — Tina Barry, author of I Tell Henrietta

“With tenderness and understanding, Williams manages to retrieve what love she shared with her deeply disturbed father to create a riveting book.” — Laura Shaine Cunningham, author of Sleeping Arrangements

“This memoir is a testament to the strength of the human spirit, capturing the struggles, complexities, and transformative moments of living in a family deeply affected by mental illness.” — Emily Metheny

“‘Is there a word for what gets said without language, how we carry the weight of the lives that come before us?’ This is one of the questions of this profound meditation on love and family. Natasha...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781627205979
PRICE US$23.99 (USD)
PAGES 310

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