Dorothy Gallagher began her career fabricating sensational stories about celebrities for a pulp magazine. Nothing she made up, though, could rival in colour and drama the true story of her own family.

Dorothy's mother tells her that the black girls who beat her up at school are the real victims. Her cousin Meyer returns to the Ukraine during the thirties and finds, to his astonishment, that the whole village is near death from starvation; still he retains his belief in Stalin's leadership. Dorothy's father scrounges wood for her stove from nearby vacant lots. She is plunged into despair when a famous editor rejects her manuscript. Her aunt Clara is murdered in her Bronx apartment . . .

This is a fresh, extraordinary tale and an essential, brilliantly crafted journey into a family's life.