Like Family (40 page)

Back Bay Books

Available wherever books are sold

“A sometimes startling, always engaging view of the hidden world in our own backyard.” —
Elle

Hailed as a memoir of unexpected beauty and arresting power,
Like Family
tells the story of three young sisters who are abandoned by their mother and father and raised as wards of the Fresno County, California, court. McLain’s unflinching recollection of being shuttled from foster home to foster home strikes a universal chord, capturing the loneliness, uncertainty, and odd pleasures that are the very nature of adolescence.

“Like Family
is a personal triumph. … McLain’s story is one of nobility and of the strength of a young woman’s spirit.” —
Wisconsin State Journal

“The first thing that strikes the reader about
Like Family
is that the author has chosen her words very carefully, fastening her story to a spectacularly stark but beautifully resonant prose.” —Kathleen O’Grady,
BUST

“A powerful and haunting memoir.” —Anne Martino,
Ann Arbor News

Paula McLain received her MFA in poetry from the University of Michigan in 1996. Her poems have appeared in numerous literary journals and in the anthology
American Poetry: The Next Generation
. Her first book of poetry,
Less of Her
, was published in 1999. She lives in Ohio.