We Are All Shipwrecks

A Memoir

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Pub Date 01 Sep 2017 | Archive Date 19 Apr 2018

Description

Kelly Carlisle was three weeks old when her mother was strangled in downtown Los Angeles, leaving Kelly in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric Englishman who owned a porn store and lived on a boat in the harbor. It is here that Kelly finds a home amongst friendly alcoholics and the city’s forgotten residents. But she can’t help but wonder if she is destined to become a part of the dysfunction that surrounds her.

As an adult, Kelly is drawn to the thornier truths of her own family history. To piece together the sad narrative of her mother’s life and death, Kelly goes back to the beginning—to a mother she never knew, a thirty-year-old cold case, and two of Los Angeles’s most notorious murderers.

Unflinchingly raw and vividly drawn, We Are All Shipwrecks is a memoir of an unconventional childhood and one woman’s courageous journey to the knowledge that where you come from isn’t always who you are.

Kelly Carlisle was three weeks old when her mother was strangled in downtown Los Angeles, leaving Kelly in the care of her grandfather, an eccentric Englishman who owned a porn store and lived on a...


Advance Praise

"Moving and complex, this is an exquisitely written tale of perseverance and unconditional love." - Library Journal, STARRED review


"Stunningly powerful memoir..." -BookPage


"Although the initial intrigue in Carlisle’s engrossing memoir is that of her mother’s murder, quite possibly by the Hillside Strangler, the real story is what came after...Carlisle writes from her current perspective, questioning the implications of a life marked by death from the start and exploring how the adults in her life...shaped who she was and who she became." - Booklist


"Rich and complex memoir... Carlisle captivates the reader in this tender, warts-and-all narrative of her attempt to unravel her mother’s murder and of the man who helped to create an adventurous, if confusing, childhood for her." - Publishers Weekly


"We Are All Shipwrecks is a memoir about being adrift and lost on a boat, but also about discovering that we're all more or less adrift, that yearning is a universal condition…readers who appreciate thoughtful memoirs will be charmed by Carlisle's generosity and easy, open reflections...a wise, contemplative, forgiving memoir by a likable narrator." -Shelf Awareness


"A turbulent childhood is accurately rendered in this gritty, raw memoir of Carlisle’s family and her search for the truth about her mother's death." - Kirkus


“Kelly Grey Carlisle reminds us of the power of forgiveness and its place in our lives.” -Bill Clegg, author of Did You Ever Have a Family


“A stunning piece of work – a wrenching, beautiful exploration of the author’s struggle to solve the mystery of her mother’s murder.” – Fourth Genre'


“Heartbreaking, and, ultimately, life-affirming and full of hope.” - David Haskell, author of Pulitzer Prize Finalist The Forest Unseen


"Moving and complex, this is an exquisitely written tale of perseverance and unconditional love." - Library Journal, STARRED review


"Stunningly powerful memoir..." -BookPage


"Although the initial...


Available Editions

EDITION Other Format
ISBN 9781492645207
PRICE $24.99 (USD)
PAGES 336

Average rating from 23 members


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