Having Spent Life Seeking by Kae Tempest review – painfully earnest tale of trauma and transition

An ex-offender searches for meaning and beauty in the second novel from the spoken-word performer Kae Tempest’s new novel is dedicated to “you”, the reader. It also comes with a plea: “Be gentle though.” But to whom or what should we be gentle? The book or the writer? Having Spent Life Seeking is Tempest’s second novel, arriving a decade after his first and following a period of considerable personal change, including gender transition. Perhaps inevitably, it is a book full of struggle and so...

By Shahidha Bari