up and help me understand her more and the depth of what she's gone through and frankly the hurt I caused her," he says. It was really beautiful and really hard to read, frankly. And I knew it was powerful and I knew it was amazing." The afterword for the book is a question and answer session between Mailhot and Inupiaq American poet Joan Naviyuk Kane. Family Terese Marie Mailhot's mother, Karen Joyce Bobb Wahzinak, was featured as a character in Paul Simon's play. Terese Marie Mailhot's father Ken Paquette starred in a documentary Hope which was directed by filmmakers Stuart Reaugh and Thomas Buchan. Reception The Los Angeles Times described Heart Berries as "poetic, urgent, short, brutal and at times darkly humorous". The New York Times described it as "a sledgehammer", and although perhaps lacking in some focus, ultimately determined "give me narrative power and ambition over tidiness any day." Writing in The Guardian, Diana Evans dubbed the book "startling", and full of, ...raw and ragged pain, the poisonous effects of sexual abuse, of racial cruelty, of violence and self-harm and drug addiction. But it is not without a wry, deadpan humour and clever derision. Its quiet rage is directed outwards towards the intangible yet definitive (white supremacy, male supremacy), the unjust shape of the world, while a deep tenderness and empathy are shown to those who share in the author's vulnerability... The Atlantic'''s Joe Fassler criticized the book's lack of exposition, writing that it "does everything it technically shouldn't, brushing off the familiar regimen prescribed by MFA programs, and slipping the strictures of commercial publishing." However, he continues, that "the thrilling part is, it works," and in the end is "a reminder that, in the right hands, literature can do anything it wants." The Star Tribune similarly noted the unique style of the work, describing it as having an effect that is both "spooky and powerful," but adding that, "although many critics have described this book with stuttering superlatives, readers will differ on whether it's poetic or incoherent, brilliant self-examination or wordy narcissism." As of April 2018, Heart Berries had reached number 14 on The New York Times Best Seller list in the hardback non-fiction category. It was a finalist for the 2018 Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction, with the winner to be announced on November 7, 2018. It was also named one of the best