Ten Steps to Nanette

Bookseller recommendation

“My first exposure to Hannah Gadsby was watching Nanette on Netflix. Nanette is funny, witty, heartbreaking, and excruciatingly well crafted. Gadsby’s memoir about the experiences that led her there is no different. Ten Steps to Nanette is many things. Gadsby elegantly synthesizes the narrative threads of her childhood, family, queerness, and neurodivergence to tell the story of how Nanette came to be. Listening to Gadsby’s expert narration, I was in awe of the complexity and nuance of her craft. Her approach to writing is unique. She does more than tell a story. Rather, she leads her reader through an experience, communicating through form what goes beyond just words on a page. As Gadsby states throughout the memoir, “there is no straight line through trauma.” I felt this in my core and will be thinking about Gadsby’s illustration of the different ways trauma weaves its way in and out of experience for a long time to come.”

— Jenni • Mysterious Galaxy Books

Bookseller recommendation

“I loved Hannah Gadsby in Please Like Me and was blown away by her Netflix special, Nanette, so it’s no surprise that I appreciated her memoir, too. I learned not only more about her life but also about the history of homophobic laws and politics in Australia, as well as quite a bit about autism, trauma and ADHD, all of which Gadsby lives with. The combination of raw honesty and wit that she writes with is pretty much unparalleled and it's a treat that she narrates it herself. Highly recommended. In case you haven’t seen it, I think watching Nanette is pretty much a pre-requisite for reading this.”

— Tracey • Turning the Tide Bookstore

Bookseller recommendation

“In 2017, at the height of the Me Too movement, Hannah Gadsby changed comedy as we know it with her groundbreaking show, Nanette. As a woman, as a lesbian, as a gender-nonconforming person, as a neuro-atypical person, as a victim of trauma, Gadsby mapped out a way forward for comedy that didn't make herself, and people like her, the butt of the joke. Part memoir, part 'making of,' this book gets at the heart of her journey to self-acceptance and fame. If you laugh-sobbed your way through Nanette like I did (and then went back to the beginning and did it again, and again, and again) then read this book to find out just how she did it and why.”

— Rachel • The Book Table