A Thousand Threads: A Memoir

Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize

“Neneh is cool, Neneh is wise, Neneh is a legend. Her memoir is a treasure. I loved it.” —Zadie Smith

This vibrant memoir from Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter Neneh Cherry offers an inside look at her fascinating career and is “a living testament to artistic invention and the people who are driven by it” (The Guardian).

Born in Sweden in 1964, Neneh Cherry’s father Ahmadu was a musician from Sierra Leone. Her mother, Moki, was a twenty-one-year-old Swedish textile artist. Her parents split up just after Neneh was born, and not long afterwards Moki met and fell in love with acclaimed jazz musician Don Cherry. Eventually, the strong pull New York City in the 1970s drew him them there, but they made a home wherever they traveled. Neneh and her brother Eagle-Eye experienced a life of creativity, freedom, and, of course, music.

In A Thousand Threads, Neneh takes readers from the charming old schoolhouse in the woods of Sweden where she grew up, to the village in Sierra Leone that was birthplace of her biological father, to the early punk scene in London and New York, to finding her identity with her stepfather’s family in Watts, California. Neneh has lived an extraordinary life of connectivity and creativity and she recounts in intimate detail how she burst onto the scene as a teenager in the punk band The Slits, and went on to release her first album in 1989 with a worldwide hit single “Buffalo Stance.”

Neneh’s inspiring and deeply compelling memoir both celebrates female empowerment and shines a light on the global music scene—and is perfect for anyone interested in the artistic life in all its forms.