This Way Up

Praise

“This Way Up is a treasure and a map, both at once. Cathrin Bradbury takes the reader on a trip to “three-quarter life,” where love, art, and family become more meaningful than ever. A hilarious and unputdownable story of creativity, romance, and never-ending possibility.”
—Elizabeth Renzetti, bestselling author of What She Said

“Bradbury details in graceful prose the uncanniness of considering one’s life in retrospect, capturing the wisdom and surprise of a liminal state where “past and present” are more like neighbors than distant relatives. Sensitive and self-aware, this is a captivating meditation on what makes a life.”
—Publishers Weekly

“With her characteristic wit, Bradbury offers a deeply felt and insightful map that takes us through love, loss, family, sickness, heartache, joy and e-bikes as we enter our third act.”
—Don Gillmor, award-winning author of Breaking and Entering

“Equal parts sharp-eyed and tender-hearted, Cathrin Bradbury has written a sly meditation on the wild ride of aging. This Way Up is both memoir and map—a navigation tool through the sticky stuff of life: friends, family, loss and love.”
—Katrina Onstad, award-winning author of Stay Where I Can See You

“The triumph of this book is that it articulates and celebrates the everydayness of life. . . . Treat yourself to This Way Up. It is a touching, engaging—and true—story of a life worth living.”
—Joseph Kertes, award-winning author of Last Impressions

“With razor sharp clarity, sober detachment, and self-deprecating humour, Bradbury takes us on her own journey of unmapping and reclamation. Beautifully written, intimate and wise, This Way Up is a literate and loving testament to being human.”
—Rod Carley, award-winning author of RUFF

“Cathrin Bradbury has pioneered a delicious new form of autobiography that somehow manages to be both hard-nosed journalism of the everyday and stream of consciousness tone poems to a life still unfolding. This Way Up hits a sweet spot on an unlikely new Venn diagram that includes Carl Jung, Elizabeth Strout, David Sedaris, Sheila Heiti, and Martin Amis.”
—Jason S. Logan, author of Make Ink: A Forager’s Guide to Natural Inkmaking

“I loved this funny, wise and honest memoir! Cathrin Bradbury creates a deeply personal map of her life, cracking herself open in surprising ways—it made me rethink my own relationship to ageing.”
—Morwyn Brebner, award-winning creator of Rookie Blue and Saving Hope

“[Bradbury has a] flair for powerful imagery and droll humour, and [her] second memoir wields the same power as she charts her life at 69, “between end of middle age and the beginning of old age.” . . . The frustrations, joys and sorrows of aging are familiar, but Bradbury reminds us not to dwell on the long and winding road in the rearview mirror and to embrace the short runway ahead.”
—Zoomer