Back Story by David Mitchell

On the Trail of a Childhood Among Other Memories

A candid, episodic memoir in which the author traces how childhood, family dynamics, long stretches of travel and lonely jobs, romantic entanglements and personal excesses fed into his imagination and shaped his voice; blending wry anecdotes with thoughtful reflections on memory, place and the craft of fiction, it shows how disparate experiences and obsessions were woven into the stories he would go on to write.