Neko Case

A NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
AN APPLE BEST BOOK OF THE MONTH

Singer-songwriter Neko Case paints a vivid portrait of an extraordinary life—one forged through a poverty-stricken childhood, obsessive desire, bursts of comedy, and indispensable friendships—reflecting on the way art, music, and a deep connection to nature helped her  become a beloved, Grammy-nominated artist.

Neko Case has long been revered as one of music’s most influential artists, whose authenticity, lyrical storytelling, and sly wit have endeared her to a legion of critics, musicians, and lifelong fans. In THE HARDER I FIGHT THE MORE I LOVE YOU, Case brings her trademark candor and precision to a memoir that traces her evolution from an invisible girl “raised by two dogs and a space heater” in rural Washington state to her improbable emergence as an internationally-acclaimed talent.
In luminous, sharp-edged prose, Case shows readers what it’s like to be left alone for hours and hours as a child, to take refuge in the woods around her home, and to channel the monotony and loneliness and joy that comes from music, camaraderie, and shared experience into art.

THE HARDER I FIGHT THE MORE I LOVE YOU is a rebellious meditation on identity and corruption, and a manifesto on how to make space for ourselves in this world, despite the obstacles we face.

A Memoir

The Harder I Fight The More I Love You

Jonnie

I grew up believing I was nothing, and sometimes my own insignificance wracked me with pain. But luckily, somewhere down the line, I came to realize that if I'm nothing, and I have nothing, what is the real risk of putting myself out there?

But I knew in my heart it was better to be a beast and live than try to be good when the rules of being good were meant to kill your soul.

If you learn nothing from something horrible, you are human, and that doesn't make you senseless or cruel. Sometimes bad things are just senseless brutality that finds you. You do not deserve or ask for these things. They are not always teaching you a lesson.

I wanted to see what my brain could do in these realms that had been ever so softly, but still unmistakably, cordoned off as forbidden to my "female" hands. I wanted to unknot my chromosomes and rebraid them into something else; something not wholly "male" but not "female," either.

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