Raised by Wolves

This unusual memoir, an original collection of personal essays and short fiction, details the author's struggle with the legacy of a childhood overshadowed by alcoholism and abuse. The attempt to resurrect the past and understand it calls into question the validity of memory itself---the very fabric of memoir and the foundation of identity. In the course of her search, the author creates a fictitious family loosely based on her own, whose stories appear here, alongside the author's. The resulting collection can be likened to a broken mirror, whose shards each reflect some aspect of truth, of the whole. The picture may be distorted and fragmented, but no less truthful, in a sense, than one that appears seamless.