With or Without You

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.

'Make it new,' Ezra Pound directed, and Domenica Ruta has ... With or Without You is that rare thing, a story you think you know transformed into one you have to read to the end. Kathryn Harrison

About the Author

Domenica Ruta is a literary prodigy, hailed as one of the most promising new writers of her generation and the recipient of a long line of prestigious scholarships and awards. Born and raised in Danvers, Massachusetts, she is a graduate of Oberlin College and holds an MFA from the Michener Center for Writers at the University of Texas. She has worked as a nanny, a dementia caregiver at a nursing home, housecleaner, bartender, videographer and as a counsellor on a domestic violence hotline service.