Two parallel stories that draw together in a most satisfying manner, true to life. This is the sort of book which you should give time to, clear your decks and read it as fast as possible. It truly grabs, the descriptions of places, awful foster homes and the sad plight of Y (Yula) is heart-wrenching. If you are prone to crying in books you will here. Then there is the story of Shannon, a wild, troubled child who must lay her past to rest, and your heart with it. Excellent. Highly recommended.
'My life begins at the Y...' Abandoned as a newborn at the doors of the local YMCA and then bounced between foster homes, Shannon eventually finds stability in the home of Miranda, a single mother with a daughter of her own. But as Shannon grows, so do her questions. Will she ever belong? Who is her true family? And why would her parents abandon Shannon on the day she was born? The answers lie in the heartrending tale of her mother, a headstrong young woman trapped in a tragic series of events that will destroy her family and test the limits of her compassion and sacrifice.
Marjorie Celona received her MFA from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was an Iowa Arts fellow and recipient of the John C. Schupes fellowship. In recent years, she has been the Olive B. O'Connor fellow at Colgate University and writer-in-residence at Hawthornden Castle in Scotland. Her stories have appeared in The Best American Nonrequired Reading, Harvard Review, Glimmer Train, and Crazyhorse, amongst others. Born and raised on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, she now lives in Cincinnati, Ohio.
