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Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard Spiral-Bound | May 24, 2011

Liz Murray

★★★★☆+ from 10,001 to 50,000 ratings

$21.28 - Free Shipping
In the vein of The Glass Castle, Breaking Night is the stunning memoir of a young woman who at age fifteen was living on the streets, and who eventually made it into Harvard.

Liz Murray was born to loving but drug-addicted parents in the Bronx. In school she was taunted for her dirty clothing and lice-infested hair, eventually skipping so many classes that she was put into a girls' home. At age fifteen, Liz found herself on the streets. She learned to scrape by, foraging for food and riding subways all night to have a warm place to sleep.

When Liz's mother died of AIDS, she decided to take control of her own destiny and go back to high school, often completing her assignments in the hallways and subway stations where she slept. Liz squeezed four years of high school into two, while homeless; won a New York Times scholarship; and made it into the Ivy League. Breaking Night is an unforgettable and beautifully written story of one young woman's indomitable spirit to survive and prevail, against all odds.
Publisher: Hachette Book Group
Original Binding: Paperback
Pages: 352 pages
ISBN-10: 1401310591
Item Weight: 0.6 lbs
Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.0 x 8.0 inches
Customer Reviews: 4 out of 5 stars 10,001 to 50,000 ratings
"From runaway to Harvard student, Murray tells an engaging, powerfully motivational story about turning her life around.... In this incredible story of true grit, Murray went from feeling like "the world was filled with people who were repulsed by me" to learning to receive the bountiful generosity of strangers who truly cared."—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Liz Murray was left homeless at age fifteen after her mother's death from AIDS. She fended for herself on the streets, eventually returning to high school. She was accepted into Harvard, where she attended college classes for three years before taking time off to help her father, who died of AIDS. She returned to college, and is now taking graduate courses at Harvard. Liz gives speaking engagements around the country. A movie about her life, Homeless to Harvard, was made by Lifetime in 2003, and airs frequently.