Harley Loco

It is my honour to introduce these pages - so gravely, so straggly, so hopeful, bright, and true -- Elizabeth Gilbert
Do any of us really know ourselves? This kind of exploration into the human spirit is what true religion is about. -- Debbie Harry
Rayya Elias' twisted, devastating memoir of a life lived on the margins can take its rightful place alongside The Basketball Diaries, Please Kill Me and Just Kids as a classic, blood-stained love letter to bohemian NYC -- Craig Marks
Elias remains sympathetic as she tramples over her girlfriends, family and herself during the drug-addled chaos of Eighties New York ... This book is to be gulped whole * Stylist *
Gritty, but brilliantly funny * Sunday Telegraph *
Rayya Elias's clear-eyed account of her very messy New York life ... A post-punk misery memoir that never asks for your sympathy * Herald *
Harley Loco succeeds because it conveys the appeal of a chaotic sex-and-drugs lifestyle ... Elias's perspective is often transparently self-deluding, but her voice is always appealing, and will doubtless find a warm and responsive audience * Daily Telegraph *
Elias's writing (in her third language) is plain street, unliterary and compelling; her self-descriptions are impressive in their refusal to dodge or euphemise ... That she wrote it at all is a major achievement for Elias; somewhat fittingly, perhaps, it's a book that struggles with its own nature -- Aida Edemariam * Guardian *