Breaking Night - Hardcover

"It's a white-knuckle account of survival, marked by desperation, brutality and fear, set in the wilds of the Bronx...Breaking Night itself is full of heart, without a sliver of ice, and deeply moving" (Tara McKelvey The New York Times)

"Liz Murray shows us that the human spirit has infinite ability to grow and can never be limited by circumstance. Breaking Night is a beautifully written, heartfelt memoir that will change the way you look at your community, the obstacles in your own life, and the American Dream. An inspiration; a must-read." (Robert Redford)

"As much as it is a memoir, Breaking Night is a primer on how poverty and drug abuse create a heartbreaking underclass of children, one that goes largely unnoticed. By the truly uplifting ending, Liz Murray has shown us the worst, and the very best, of America." (Haven Kimmel, author of A Girl Named Zippy and She Got Up Off The Couch)

"In tender and graceful prose, Murray gives us the uncompromising and searing story of a forgotten family and devastated childhood. She reminds us that the greatest acts of love and failure can occur side by side; that isolation and loss can give way to accomplishment and promise. She offers the awesome hope that, regardless of its past, a life can go beyond endurance and reach for triumph. She leaves us with the memory of a child who clung to and refused to surrender the dignity of her soul." (Andrew Bridge, author of Hope's Boy)

"Liz Murray's startling and beautifully written memoir is a story of one young woman's tenacity, ingenuity, brilliance and compassion. It not only shows us the fierce, triumphant spirit of teenage girls, but that of the human spirit, as well." (Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues and I am An Emotional Creature)

Liz Murray never really had a chance in life. Born to a drug-addicted father who was in and out of prison, and an equally dependent mother who was in and out of mental institutions, she seemed destined to become just another tragic statistic. Another life wasted on the brutal streets of New York.

By the age of 15, Liz found herself homeless with nowhere to turn but the tough streets, riding subways all night for a warm place to sleep and foraging through dumpsters for food. But when her mother died of AIDS a year later, Liz's life changed for ever. With no education, with no chance at a job or a home, she realised that only the most astonishing of turnarounds could stop her heading all the way down the same path her parents took. And so she set her mind to overcoming what seemed like impossible odds - and in the process, achieved something extraordinary.

Told with astounding sincerity, Breaking Night is the breathtaking and inspirational story of how a young women, born into a world without hope, used every ounce of strength and determination to steer herself towards a brighter future. Beautifully written, it is a poignant, evocative and stirring portrait of struggle, desperation, forgiveness and survival.