Buy used:
$16.65
FREE delivery Friday, May 17. Details
Or fastest delivery Thursday, May 9. Order within 2 hrs 5 mins. Details
Used: Like New | Details
Sold by Sean Franklin St
Condition: Used: Like New
Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.
Amazon book clubs early access
Loading your book clubs
There was a problem loading your book clubs. Please try again.
Not in a club? Learn more
Amazon book clubs early access

Join or create book clubs

Choose books together

Track your books
Bring your club to Amazon Book Clubs, start a new book club and invite your friends to join, or find a club that’s right for you for free.
Explore Amazon Book Clubs
Kindle app logo image

Download the free Kindle app and start reading Kindle books instantly on your smartphone, tablet, or computer - no Kindle device required.

Read instantly on your browser with Kindle for Web.

Using your mobile phone camera - scan the code below and download the Kindle app.

QR code to download the Kindle App

Follow the author

Catrina Davies
+ Follow
More books from this author
Something went wrong. Please try your request again later.

Homesick: Why I Live in a Shed Hardcover – July 11, 2019

by Catrina Davies (Author)
4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 934 ratings
See all formats and editions
Save 2% at checkout Terms
if you buy more Shop items

The story of a personal housing crisis that led to a discovery of the true value of home.

'Incredibly moving. To find peace and a sense of home after a life so profoundly affected by the housing crisis, is truly inspirational' Raynor Winn, bestselling author of The Salt Path

Aged thirty-one, Catrina Davies was renting a box-room in a house in Bristol, which she shared with four other adults and a child. Working several jobs and never knowing if she could make the rent, she felt like she was breaking apart.

Homesick for the landscape of her childhood, in the far west of Cornwall, Catrina decides to give up the box-room and face her demons. As a child, she saw her family and their security torn apart; now, she resolves to make a tiny, dilapidated shed a home of her own.

With the freedom to write, surf and make music, Catrina rebuilds the shed and, piece by piece, her own sense of self. On the border of civilisation and wilderness, between the woods and the sea, she discovers the true value of home, while trying to find her place in a fragile natural world.

This is the story of a personal housing crisis and a country-wide one, grappling with class, economics, mental health and nature. It shows how housing can trap us or set us free, and what it means to feel at home.

Read more Read less
Previous page
  1. Print length
    368 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    riverrun
  4. Publication date
    July 11, 2019
  5. Dimensions
    5.75 x 1.5 x 8.58 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1787478653
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1787478657
  8. See all details
Next page
Amazon First Reads | Editors' picks at exclusive prices

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ riverrun (July 11, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 368 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1787478653
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1787478657
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.03 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.75 x 1.5 x 8.58 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 934 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.
Catrina Davies

Catrina Davies

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.
Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Catrina Davies was born in Snowdonia and grew up around Land's End, in Cornwall. She is the author of Fearless, an account of busking from Norway to Portugal, and Homesick, an acclaimed personal account of the UK housing crisis, grappling with class, economics, mental health and nature.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5 out of 5
934 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Marshmallow
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating and real
Reviewed in the United States on March 25, 2023
Verified Purchase
This book is very inspiring. Many of us are facing the changes in the world with dread, fear about what lies ahead for us and our loved ones. I think that after reading this, I have less dread because of the way the author deals with life's many vicissitudes. Her narrative conveys that one can deal with most difficulties- even with despair itself- and find one's way. Like many books about courageous people, the main character stays with you, like a friend, as one continues one's own life. She had Thoreau- now we have her too. She's very good at describing land, places, people, and her own interior world- and it is a world worth describing.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Dee W
5.0 out of 5 stars Poignant and thoughtful
Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2022
Verified Purchase
Even prehistoric man was able to seek and find suitable shelter. No one in a first world country should ever go homeless, regardless of circumstances. This book underscores the growing gulf between the haves and have nots. A compelling and well written story and a strong woman’s quest for shelter and independence and the roadblocks and hurtles she faces.
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Catherine Loomis
4.0 out of 5 stars Walden for the 21st century. A study in observation, determination, and creativity.
Reviewed in the United States on September 12, 2021
Verified Purchase
Despite the efforts of burglars, rats, hailstorms, a careless teenage driver, and the local planning board, Catrina Davies keeps her beloved Cornish home and her soul intact. The descriptions of surfing, the landscape, her family, and the people who help her along the way show a compassionate close observer hard at work.
4 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Kevin Hortens
5.0 out of 5 stars wonderful imagrey.
Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2022
Verified Purchase
I very much enjoyed this book. A quick enjoyable read for me, a non-reader who has been penned up due to the
Helpful
 Report
bobby j.
5.0 out of 5 stars her framing is empowering.
Reviewed in the United States on March 19, 2022
Verified Purchase
worth the investment. its a manifesto of sorts with a light that guides!
Helpful
 Report
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Learning to do with less
Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2020
Verified Purchase
I do not think my review would do justice to the story written by the author. I can inky say that at the end of reading it, I felt ashamed of what we humans have come to signify. I truly want to be a better person, this story opened my eyes.
6 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
Spontaneous one
4.0 out of 5 stars good stuff
Reviewed in the United States on August 27, 2019
Verified Purchase
one of the most engrossing memoirs i have read
3 people found this helpful
Helpful
 Report
B A Wasko
5.0 out of 5 stars great read
Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2022
Verified Purchase
great read
One person found this helpful
Helpful
 Report

Top reviews from other countries

Translate all reviews to English
Madeleine Gray
5.0 out of 5 stars Just loved it!!
Reviewed in Italy on December 7, 2023
Verified Purchase
I read homesick in 24hours. I felt like I was with Catarina on her journey. Thank you for sharing this story with us. Your writing is a gift.
Report
pablo
4.0 out of 5 stars Muy bien
Reviewed in Spain on August 12, 2020
Verified Purchase
Muy bien. I'm libro muy interesante..
Report
Iris
5.0 out of 5 stars Top Kundenservice
Reviewed in Germany on December 18, 2019
Verified Purchase
Schönes Buch und toller Kundenservice!
Report
Dhriti Beri
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book
Reviewed in India on October 29, 2019
Verified Purchase
Loved this book. This courageous author and her story will live on in my heart. Catrina truly showed me how to live with little and yet be enriched by being one in nature. Her writing is very similar to Ruskin Bond , reminding us how beautiful and healing it is to live in harmony with nature and its many seasons.
Report
Alan Ravenscroft
5.0 out of 5 stars This book has everything going for it.
Reviewed in France on August 21, 2019
Verified Purchase
This book has everything going for it. Passionate, evocative, life enhancing, at times humorous and sad, but always provocative and thoroughly human and intensely personal. It inspires us to take control of our lives, describing how a life of city drudgery and long hours to sustain an unattractive and unfulfilling life is replaced through imagination and determination by a love for and integration with the natural world and the self. Do we all have the resources on board to achieve this – however hidden they may be – and could we activate them? Catrina Davies is at her confident full stretch when writing first hand about her (and our) relationship with nature. The world around us can be a companion and almost a confidant – it is our natural home in every sense. It is where we belong and there is always a place for us there – a home? I found the sections on the power, intimacy and beauty of the English West Country sea especially primal and complete. But the central drive of this book is that we don’t have to be 24/7 consumers to fulfil some bogus contract with society signed on our behalf by a narrow focussed educational system and a greedy and unkind political system. Ms Davies has read that outdated contract and the ill considered small print and taken a singular route down the road less travelled. With the planet in crisis it is time for all of us to consider what she has done and lean our lives in that direction. We need to listen to and follow the voice within us all. In modern parlance it is time to return to our factory settings and re direct the emphases of our lives.
Report