In this stunning memoir about growing up in a poor family dominated by an alcoholic father, Barbara Robinette Moss recalls in poignant detail the bitter intimacy of his abuse and the fierce devotion of her mother. A woman who nurtured a love of poetry and art in her eight children despite constant threats of violence, starvation and homelessness. Lack of proper nutrition and medical care left Moss with a "twisted mummy face" and a remarkable determination to banish the visible scars of her past. This book is the inspiring story of how that came to pass, of how she was able to compose a life marked by beauty in all its manifestations.