This memoir by Andrea Kott is a true find. It is heartbreaking, inspiring, authentic and gripping. It is about a lifetime’s journey of dealing with an alcoholic and depressed mother, a constant conflict with what it means to be Jewish, and the despair of terrible loss and abandonment. It is exquisitely written and impossible to put it down. Kott’s path to health and fulfillment is illuminating as much as it is profoundly sad. She asks for no sympathy and there is no fairy tale ending; she just tells her compelling story and the reader is the better for it.