"[Kate Holden's] road to recovery begins when she starts working in a brothel. The clients seem to fit the same distribution curve - brutish at one end, sweet at the other - but now that the trade is coming to her, she draws strength from the power of her allure, starts to take pride in her work, and discovers she's good at it. This surprising trajectory, along with its searing intellectual and emotional honesty and the quality of the writing, easily sets "In My Skin" apart from most other my-substance-abuse-hell memoirs." - "The Independent" on Sunday 21/05/06. "Her vivid narrative voice lends a gritty poetry to her tale of heroin addiction, half-hearted rehab and prostitution. The book's power to shock rests in its contrasts; the life Kate led during her 20s may have been unexceptional for many young women, but not for a pretty, intelligent, middle-class girl with a classics degree, a job in a bookshop and a loving family of liberal, politically aware academics. She conjures with glittering clarity the sense of invincibility that comes with the first taste of adult life, the belief that drugs can make love and art transcendent, the conviction that you are in control. "In My Skin" is a compelling story of love and squalor that retains humanity and sympathy." - "The Observer", 14/05/06.

About the Author

KATE HOLDEN Kate Holden is accustomed to being summed up at a glance: arts graduate, history buff, middle-class daughter, dreamer, innocent. But she is a young woman who understands better than most the secrets that people keep hidden

Reviews

What happens when a bright, well-loved young woman gets hooked on heroin and turns to prostitution to keep up her habit? Hopefully, she eventually shakes free, as Australian Holden does, but most likely a lot goes wrong first. In this vivid and riveting account of her own sudden fall and slow recovery, Holden describes the slow pull toward heroin as her friends and her lover are hooked. Mild, almost bored temptation turns into obsession after she gives it a try. As the drug and the life compromises it encourages take over Holden's universe, she loses her job and rarely sees her family and clean friends. Eventually, desperate for cash for the daily fixes for herself and her inept boyfriend, she starts turning tricks on the street. When, one night, a john turns out to be a scout for temps at a brothel, Holden's story turns. The relative stability of the brothel, and the accompanying relationships with sister prostitutes and even some johns, revives Holden's sense of self and self-worth. Throughout, she tells it like it is. Her depictions of the dark realities she lived through are at times graphic, especially in some of the more difficult scenes with johns, but always clear-eyed. She lets the readers see and judge the situation for themselves. (Nov.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

'...this surprising trajectory, along with searing intellectual and emotional honesty and the quality of the writing easily sets In My Skin apart from most other my-substance-abuse-hell memoirs.' Independent on Sunday '...not exactly light summer reading, but worth a look for Holden's frankness, lack of self-pity, and refusal to sensationalise or sentimentalise her tale.' Kate Gould in the Scotland on Sunday'...quite simply in a class of its own...the work of a stunningly talented writer who both graces and surpasses her material, subverting popular assumption about addiction and prostitution while making the extraordinary seem commonplace and the ordinary deeply alluring...Kate Holden could make the story of a tongue-tied troglodyte thrilling...makes for discomfiting, illuminating reading'. Joanna Briscoe, The Times'It's a terrifying and compelling story told with little or no attempt to explain away her actions or apportion blame, and gives you a tantalizing peek into a world we all hope never to experience.' Shauna Bartlett in Glamour, 1/6/06'...Holden tells her story with enough grimy detail to make it authentic; more important, her vivid narrative voice lends a gritty poetry to her tale of heroin addiction, half-hearted rehab and prostitution...glittering clarity...In My Skin is a compelling story of love and squalor that retains humanity and sympathy, shocking more for the unsparing and understanding light it shines on the relationship between female sexuality and self-esteem.' Stephanie Merritt, the Observer"Holden's talents as a prostitute won her a large an loyal clientele. Her gifts as a writer should do the same."Christina Patterson, The Independent Review

The elevated, poetic language of Aussie writer Holden's debut memoir vibrates with passion as she tells the story of the small victories and great obstacles she encountered as a heroin addict who turned to prostitution as a way of supporting her habit. The middle-class Holden, a carefree, artistic bohemian who scraped by selling books, is introduced to the drug in her early twenties by her boyfriend in the small Australian town of St. Kilda at a time when the grunge band Nirvana reigned and heroin was at the peak of its glamour. Holden finds the strength to recover through the help of her supportive family and, ironically, through her struggle with the very hardships she finally escapes. Her acutely vivid prose is a revelation, even if the subject matter is not. Recommended for all public libraries. [Holden's draft manuscript of this book won the Judy Duffy Award for literary excellence. Ed.] Elizabeth Brinkley, Granite Falls, WA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.