Breaking Night

Summer 1985, in the downtrodden Bronx neighbourhood of New York. At just 5 years old this would be the last time that Liz Murray could remember feeling like a child. In the years that would follow she would be consistently absent from school, kept awake with the pain of hunger or from waiting up until the small hours for her drug addicted parents to return home - parents who spent what little money their government dependent family had on getting their next fix. Barely managing to hold her family together and outcast for her dirty appearance, Liz was certain that dreams of a better life were just that.
At the age of 15, she found herself homeless with nowhere to turn but the rough streets, scraping by eating garbage and riding subways all night to have a warm place to sleep. But when her mother died of AIDS a year later, Liz's life changed forever. Determined to take control, she pulled herself back from the brink and set about picking up the pieces of her life: Starting with finishing high school.
Without a stable home and while supporting herself and her sister, Liz defied all the odds when at the age of eighteen she was awarded a once unthinkable scholarship to Harvard.
Told with astounding sincerity, 'Breaking Night' is the breathtaking and inspirational memoir 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.