Are We Home Yet? by Katy Massey

The moving memoir of a mixed-race woman from a working class community in Leeds and her outspoken French-Canadian mother.

Non-fiction | Publsihed by Jacaranda Books

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Spanning the years from 1935 to 2010, Are We Home Yet? is the moving and funny story of a girl and her mother.

As a girl, Katy accidentally discovers her mother is earning money as a sex worker at the family home, rupturing their bond. As an adult, Katy contends with grief and mental health challenges before she and her mother attempt to heal their relationship.

From Canada, to Leeds and Jamaica, and exploring shame, immigration and class, the pair share their stories but struggle to understand each other’s choices in a fast-changing world. By revealing their truths, can these two strong women call a truce on their hostilities and overcome the oppressive ghosts of the past?


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Reviews and awards

Shortlisted for the Jhalak Prize 2021

Funny, pin-sharp and wise…gets under your skin and right into your heart. — Kit de Waal

Katy's writing is unflinchingly honest and undeniably authentic. It is also funny, sharp and full of perfectly placed detail. She challenges our preconceptions whilst transporting us right into the middle of a world few of us have had a chance to see this clearly before. — Sharon Duggal, author of The Handsworth Times and Should We Fall Behind


About the author

Katy Massey was a journalist for fifteen years before returning to university and beginning to write creatively. Her PhD findings formed the inspiration for Tangled Roots, a long-term project aiming to equip everyone with the skills to author their own lives. She is a skilled workshop leader, editor and writer. Her life writing and fiction has been shortlisted for several prizes including Leeds Literature Prize 2013, Crocus Books/Commonword First Chapter competition 2010 as well as being long-listed for Route publications A Few Good Books submissions competition 2010. She has also edited two collections of memoirs. In 2017 she was a judge for the first-ever Spread the Word Life Writing Prize

Katy Massey

Katy Massey