num_pages: 336
description: “In this beautifully written, poignant, honest, and unflinching work, the author takes readers with her on her journey through grief and discovery as she finds out – for good or ill – who her parents really were.” - Library Journal (starred review)Anya Yurchyshyn grew up in a narrow townhouse in Boston, every corner filled with the souvenirs of her parents’ adventurous international travels. On their trips to Egypt, Italy, and Saudi Arabia, her mother, Anita, and her father, George, lived an entirely separate life from the one they led as the parents of Anya and her sister – one that Anya never saw. The parents she knew were a brittle, manipulative alcoholic and a short-tempered disciplinarian: people she imagined had never been in love. But when she cleaned out her childhood home in the wake of her mother's death, she discovered artifacts of a life and a love affair that she didn't recognize--letters, photos of exotic locales, and startling documents that revealed hidden pasts and forced her to rethink everything she thought she knew about her life and her family. Determined to learn who her parents had really been, she embarks on a journey of discovery and encounters truths she could have never imagined. Part literary thriller, part detective story, My Dead Parents is the account of one woman's relentless quest to solve the tragic and complex mysteries of her past, and in so doing, to come more fully to terms with her life today.
language: English
title: My Dead Parents: A Memoir
publisher: Crown