THE MEMOIR

WHEN I WAS HER DAUGHTER

This award-winning work of narrative nonfiction is a raw and haunting account of one girl’s journey through madness, loss, and a broken child welfare system in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

Award-Winning Memoir WHEN I WAS HER DAUGHTER

Seven-year-old Leslie has a problem. Someone is trying to kill her. 

Her mother Roberta suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, writes rambling manifestos, and forces her children to live on the run to evade capture by the Russian spies she believes are after them. With every psychotic break, Leslie and her younger brother face terrifying circumstances despite the fact that Roberta’s only wish is to protect them. Who will help them when she is convinced that killing them will save them from a worse fate?

When separated from her family and thrust into foster care for the foreseeable future, Leslie navigates a new kind of fear and loneliness. All she wants is to be loved, but how can her mother ever love her when she is so far away? How can she love her now that Leslie has betrayed her in so many ways?

Ultimately, Leslie remains at the mercy of the adults in her life who can effect change, and she wonders if she will ever find a safe place to land. Nobody will talk about her mother’s mental illness, and nothing seems to be able to fix her dysfunctional family. But her sixth-grade teacher gives her hope every day, so Leslie pretends she is—and always has been—her daughter.

An unbelievable true story of grit and heart, the award-winning memoir When I Was Her Daughter is, at its core, a tale about how the redemptive power of patience and courage leads to unconditional love for a lost and angry child desperate to understand where she belongs

AWARDS

2023 Chanticleer International Book Awards

Finalist

JOURNEY Book Awards for Overcoming Adversity in Narrative Non-Fiction

 

2023 Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards 

Gold Medal

Non-Fiction/Memoir 

 

2023 Outstanding Creator Awards Winter

3rd Place Best Non-Fiction Book 

1st Place Family

2nd Place Autobiographies& Memoirs

3rd Place Women’s Non-Fiction & Women’s Issues 

3rd Place Motivational/Inspirational 

 

2023 PenCraft Winter Seasonal Book Awards

Winner

Memoir

 

2022 Firebird Book Awards

1st Place Coming of Age

1st Place Parenting & Family 

1st Place Psychiatry/Psychology 

 

2022 The Memoir Prize for Books

Winner

Resilience

 

What Readers Are Saying

PRAISE FOR THE BOOK

Sue William Silverman (1)
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Marni Freedman (3)
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