Twine: A Memoir

Composed from a collection of haunting and colorful memories, Twine chronicles the dark journey of a broken family spanning generations.

Sliding effortlessly between past and present, this is the story of Dorriah Burke--a girl raised among California avocados and a bewildering array of dysfunctional family members. As children, trapped between their alcoholic mother and violent father, Dorriah and her brother are faced with untenable choices and lives of ever-increasing lunacy and sorrow.

Now an adult, Dorriah finally escapes across the country with her own daughter in an attempt to restart her life, but the miles aren't enough. Grief-stricken by her mother's rapidly declining health, her father's shocking choices, and her brother's inability to help, she is forced to make a decision: unlock her past and her only hope to overcome her personal demons, or protect her only child from the dark labyrinth of her family history.

Twine is a seductive memoir of shocking narrative power and sweeping honesty. Written with a clever and profane wit and populated by unforgettable and profoundly relatable characters, it is a beautiful narrative that's impossible to put down--a story of agony and loss, betrayal and love, survival and reinvention that never allows the reader to rest for an instant as the story ruthlessly hurtles towards its surprising conclusion.