There She Goes, My Beautiful World

What does ‘home’ mean? Is it where you come from, or is it somewhere that you have to create for yourself, building brick by brick on the ruins and treasures of everything that has gone before? 

In this compelling memoir, Gosia Buzzanca tells the story of a young woman who leaves Poland at the age of nineteen in search of a bigger life, hoping to leave the traumas of her teenage years behind her. After studying in England, she finds a rich new tapestry of experience awaiting her in Wales, with intertwined threads of love and literature, hope and despair. Motherhood brings new joys, but the pain of the past must be faced before this new life by the seaside can truly feel like home.  

With the fearless honesty of a poet, Gosia offers her account of an extraordinary ordinary life where every flavour is tasted, every moment lived to its fullest. This story of a lifelong quest for home will call to anyone who has ever felt lost or incomplete, and who yearns to find a place where they belong. 

‘Gosia Buzzanca’s memoir is a deceptively simple account of becoming a writer. You can taste and smell her story of being brought up in Poland and moving to the UK. Everyday details flash into the occasional brilliant metaphor in this warm and vibrant story of moving into adult family life and art. Delightful.’

Gwyneth Lewis

‘There She Goes, My Beautiful World takes you into two vibrantly textured worlds, Poznań, Poland and Barry, Wales, to relate the story of a girl who’s lived to tell it with such vitality it immediately feels like the long breathless account of a close friend, hair-raising at times, always warm and strangely enchanting.’

Rachel Trezise

‘Gosia Buzzanca’s stunning debut illuminates the particular ache and wonder of being caught between languages, countries and versions of yourself. Part coming-of-age story, part meditation on displacement, motherhood, memory and belonging, There She Goes, My Beautiful World announces a brilliant new voice in memoir.

A book about leaving and staying, losing and finding, written with the kind of fearless tenderness that transforms the personal into the universal.’

Ariel Gore

‘Vulnerable, melancholic but unafraid, There She Goes, My Beautiful World navigates a life still evolving in glimpses of sharp prose. Compelling in its intimacy, the story is shared, rather than told, and as the narrator grows, we do too. We encounter Małgorzata, meet Gosia, and then get to know G.’

Anthony Shapland 

‘This is a beautiful, searing memoir about trauma, resilience, displacement and the home we build within ourselves. The writing is poetic and electrifying, the storytelling is piercing and it is so tender and full of heart and hope. I absolutely loved it.’

Lucia Osborne-Crowley

‘Structured as richly poetic vignettes, this memoir engages effortlessly as it journeys through G’s girlhood challenges, providing us with deeply immersive snapshots of a curious mind that finds joy in the moment but doesn’t flinch away from darker memories. There She Goes, My Beautiful World is a rare treat!’

Hanan Issa

‘There She Goes, My Beautiful World is a moving exploration of identity, belonging and laying claim to your own narrative. This book considers what it means to forge a path through structures of gender, social class and nationalism, through the story of a woman determined to make a home for herself, on her own terms.’

Jessica Andrews

‘Gosia is a writer of rare talent and all that spark, heart and authenticity runs right through this book like a stick of rock.’

Kerry Hudson