Fans of The Glass Castle and Angela's Ashes will appreciate this extraordinary tale of survival and resilience recorded in spare and convincing prose. Written from a child's point of view from ages 4 to 17, this tale describes the turbulent childhood of the author in 1970s Las Vegas.

The desert perimeter serves as a hot, dry and dangerous barrier that shuts out the rest of the vibrant world and bleaches away any sense of the joy that colors childhoods. Born into an ongoing cycle of alcoholism and abandonment amidst fallen adults, Marlayna develops a powerful sense of self-preservation in contrast to the people entrusted with her care. Her story explores the personalities of the bizarre characters who populate her life as she moves from home to home, parent to parent, family to family and ultimately to homelessness at the age of fourteen. Out of the resources of her remarkable childhood emerges an inner strength that will charm and captivate readers and remain in their consciousness long after the last page of her story has been turned.

"The language of gambling makes an interesting and recurrent motif throughout this memoir, asserting that it is only by chance that any one of us could have traveled this very same road. Decks are shuffled, hands are played. An ultimately uplifting, beautifully written, and inspiring memoir." - Fiona Edmonds

Recommended to book clubs by 1 of 1 members.