American Daughter: A Memoir By: Elissa Wald, Stephanie Thornton Plymale

Author: Elissa Wald

“Gut-wrenching and absorbing…in the vein of Educated and The Glass Castle.”—BOOKLIST

“a story of redemption and forgiveness.”—MARY BETH KEANE, NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“Impressive…
Readers will find themselves recalibrating their judgments about villains and victims”–—BOOKPAGE (STARRED REVIEW)

For 50 years, Stephanie Plymale kept her past a fiercely guarded secret. No one outside her immediate family would have guessed that her childhood was fraught with every imaginable hardship: a mentally ill mother who was in and out of jails and psych wards throughout Stephanie’s formative years, neglect, hunger, poverty, homelessness, truancy, foster homes, a harrowing lack of medical care, and worse.

Stephanie, in turn, knew very little about the past of her mother, from whom she remained estranged during most of her adult life. All this changed with a phone call that set a journey of discovery in motion, leading to a series of shocking revelations that forced Stephanie to revise the meaning of almost every aspect of her very compromised childhood.

American Daughter is at once the deeply moving memoir of a troubled mother-daughter relationship and a meditation on resilience, transcendence, and redemption. Stephanie’s story is unique but its messages are universal, offering insight into what it means to rise above, heal, and forgive.

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