Author(s): Domenica Ruta

Biography and Memoir

A darkly hilarious and compulsively readable mother-daughter story for a new generation. Domenica Ruta grew up in trash-filled house in a hardscrabble town where women were once burned as witches. Her mother, Kathi, was a notorious figure, a drug addict and sometime dealer with highbrow tastes whose life swung from welfare to riches. Yet despite the chaos she caused, Kathi managed to instill in her daughter the idea that art and literature could transcend this life. With or Without You is her daughter's unflinching chronicle of an unconventional coming of age, the necessary and painful act of breaking away, and overcoming her own addictions and demons in the process. The result is a shocking, unforgettable and ultimately redemptive story of loving and leaving.