About the Author

James Lasdun was born in London and now lives in upstate New York. He has published novels, including It's Beginning to Hurt, as well as several collections of short stories and poetry. He has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize and shortlisted for the Los Angeles Times, T. S. Eliot, and Forward prizes in poetry, and he was the winner of the inaugural BBC National Short Story Award. His nonfiction has been published in Harper's Magazine, Granta, and the London Review of Books.

Reviews

"Smart, rigorous, and beautifully written." --The New York Times"A fierce and compelling memoir." --Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air"This must be the most informative, the most insightful, and the most beautifully written of any account from the victim's perspective of what has come to be called cyberbullying." --Joyce Carol Oates"One of those books that made me grateful for subway delays, so much did I want the excuse to keep reading it....A rigorous and moving and very elegantly wrought examination of obsession, relentlessness, power, envy, and ambition." --Rebecca Mead, NewYorker.com's Page-Turner"Fascinating and eminently readable...An astute meditation on anti-Semitism, online harassment, the nature of obsession, and the power of the written word....[Lasdun's] measured narrative has the suspense of a psychological thriller." --The Economist

Smart, rigorous, and beautifully written. The New York Times A fierce and compelling memoir. Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air This must be the most informative, the most insightful, and the most beautifully written of any account from the victim's perspective of what has come to be called cyberbullying. Joyce Carol Oates One of those books that made me grateful for subway delays, so much did I want the excuse to keep reading it....A rigorous and moving and very elegantly wrought examination of obsession, relentlessness, power, envy, and ambition. Rebecca Mead, NewYorker.com's Page-Turner Fascinating and eminently readable...An astute meditation on anti-Semitism, online harassment, the nature of obsession, and the power of the written word....[Lasdun's] measured narrative has the suspense of a psychological thriller. The Economist"

Smart, rigorous, and beautifully written. "The New York Times" A fierce and compelling memoir. "Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air" This must be the most informative, the most insightful, and the most beautifully written of any account from the victim's perspective of what has come to be called cyberbullying. "Joyce Carol Oates" One of those books that made me grateful for subway delays, so much did I want the excuse to keep reading it....A rigorous and moving and very elegantly wrought examination of obsession, relentlessness, power, envy, and ambition. "Rebecca Mead, NewYorker.com's Page-Turner" Fascinating and eminently readable...An astute meditation on anti-Semitism, online harassment, the nature of obsession, and the power of the written word....[Lasdun's] measured narrative has the suspense of a psychological thriller. "The Economist""

"Smart, rigorous, and beautifully written."--"The New York Times
""A fierce and compelling memoir."--Maureen Corrigan, NPR's "Fresh Air
"
"This must be the most informative, the most insightful, and the most beautifully written of any account from the victim's perspective of what has come to be called cyberbullying."--Joyce Carol Oates
"One of those books that made me grateful for subway delays, so much did I want the excuse to keep reading it....A rigorous and moving and very elegantly wrought examination of obsession, relentlessness, power, envy, and ambition."--Rebecca Mead, NewYorker.com's "Page-Turner"
"Fascinating and eminently readable...An astute meditation on anti-Semitism, online harassment, the nature of obsession, and the power of the written word....[Lasdun's] measured narrative has the suspense of a psychological thriller."--"The Economist
"

"Smart, rigorous and beautifully written." --Scott Bradfield, "The New York Times""James Lasdun's extraordinary tale of erotic obsession is so gripping that I read the first 70 pages in one -buttock-clenching rush--there is no greater narcotic than insanity combined with lust . . ." --Camilla Long, "The Sunday Times" (UK)"What imbues "Give Me Everything You Have" with its considerable humanity is Lasdun's thoughtful exploration of the broader subjects of reputation, temptation, virtue, honor and ego." --Annie Groer, "Washington Post""What is finally most riveting about this strange and unsettling book is not the grim fascination of Lasdun's situation; it's the moral intelligence and intensity with which he examines it." --Mark O'Connell, "The Observer
""""Brilliant." --William Leith, "The Spectator
""What Amy Chua's "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" was to parenting a couple of years ago, Lasdun's "Give Me Everything You Have" may well be to teaching: a controversial personal reflection on the professor-student relationship . . . a fierce and compelling memoir." --Maureen Corrigan, "Fresh Air""No book I've read has ever covered the subject in more emotional depth and with deeper intellectual analysis . . . Lasdun's book is a work of semi-autobiography, but it grips like a fine thriller." -- Peter James, "The Globe and Mail" (Toronto)"Grimly fascinating and stunningly well-written . . . a brilliant meditation on some of the thorniest issues of contemporary society" --Emma Garman, "The Daily Beast" "An extraordinarily odd and disturbing story. Like Nasreen, Lasdun is a 'real writer, ' 'someone for whom words are a source of primal delight.' The poet in him is skilled at following tiny snags of thought into marvelous, rich mini-essays: on Gawain, DH Lawrence, Patricia Highsmith's "Strangers on a Train." Himself the author of brainy, sophisticated noirs, he's brilliant at using folk and modern narrative forms to enliven each other . .

"James Lasdun's "Give Me Everything You Have" is a classic of true crime. It is an account of a long and terrifying ordeal in which the author has, for years, been stalked, threatened and defamed by an obsessed woman, an ex-student of his. I had selected "Give Me Everything You Have" from the tall stack of books next to my bed for a nightcap read but was up until dawn with it. The author recounts the details of this spectacular persecution with wisdom, moments of humor, and grace." --Norman Rush"Here is a chilling account of what it is to experience 'verbal terrorism' in the age of email and the Internet--a riveting memoir of James Lasdun's nightmare experience of having been stalked for five years by a former student. This must be the most informative, the most insightful, and the most beautifully written of any account from the victim's perspective of what has come to be called 'cyberbullying.'" --Joyce Carol Oates ""Give Me Everything You Have "is a reminder, as if any were needed, of how easily, since the arrival of the Internet, our peace can be troubled and our good name besmirched." --J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize-winning author of "Diary of a Bad Year""["Give Me Everything You Have "is] grimly fascinating and stunningly well-written . . . A brilliant meditation on some of the thorniest issues of contemporary society." --Emma Garman, "The Daily Beast" "What Amy Chua's "Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother" was to parenting a couple of years ago, Lasdun's "Give Me Everything You Have" may well be to teaching: a controversial personal reflection on the professor-student relationship . . . A fierce and compelling memoir." --Maureen Corrigan, "Fresh Air" "["Give Me Everything You Have "is] an enthralling and thoughtful book." --Laura Miller, "Salon" "An extraordinarily odd and disturbing story. Like Nasreen, Lasdun is a 'real writer, ' 'someone for whom words are a source of primal delight.' The poet in him is skilled at following tiny sna

"Here is a chilling account of what it is to experience 'verbal terrorism' in the age of email and the Internet--a riveting memoir of James Lasdun's nightmare experience of having been stalked for five years by a former student. This must be the most informative, the most insightful, and the most beautifully written of any account from the victim's perspective of what has come to be called 'cyberbullying.'" --Joyce Carol Oates "James Lasdun's "Give Me Everything You Have "is an autobiographical work, rare, beautiful, bitter, and profoundly accepting of his own experience: a former female student stalks him viciously for years. The story Lasdun tells is applicable to all human experience." --Paula Fox ""Give Me Everything You Have "is a reminder, as if any were needed, of how easily, since the arrival of the Internet, our peace can be troubled and our good name besmirched." --J. M. Coetzee, Nobel Prize-winning author of "Diary of a Bad Year" ""Give Me Everything You Have "is a riveting, searingly honest meditation on desire, the writing life, and a consciousness held prisoner by a force beyond its reach or control. James Lasdun has taken a dark event from his life and placed it powerfully in the wider realm of literature and myth." --Michael Greenberg, author of "Hurry Down Sunshine"" """Give Me Everything You Have "is a stunning fusion of memoir, travelogue, and compelling literary self-analysis. With the intuitive and psychological panache of Saul Bellow and the mythic intelligence and sweep of Robert Graves, James Lasdun explores the personal and historic qualities of terror and victimhood. The inquisition on anti-Semitism in all its inglorious aspects is both alarming and profound. It's an original, honest, and courageous book." --Philip Schultz, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "Failure" "This is one of those books that "had "to be written--for personal reasons on the part of the author, as well as for larger cultural reasons onk

Praise for "It's Beginning to Hurt

""Mr. Lasdun instinctively understands human psychology, and it seem as though he can turn anything into a story." --"The Wall Street Journal"

"Reading Lasdun is like reading a sly collaboration between Kafka and Updike: elegant, acutely observed and utterly unflinching." --"The Times "(London)