{"product_id":"twist-adele-bertei-9781736309339","title":"Twist: An American Girl","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"One of the most original, amazing stories I've ever read\" (Mary Gaitskill), iconic rock-and-roll musician Adele Bertei's memoir \u003ci\u003eTwist\u003c\/i\u003e is her harrowing and electric story of transforming trauma through art, pluck, and imagination, as told through the inimitable voice of her young alter ego, Maddie Twist. \u003c\/b\u003eFrom iconoclastic writer and musician Adele Bertei comes a wholly original hero's journey that wages war on the cliché of the \"misery memoir.\" Set in a 1960s and '70s American neighborhood rife with poverty and violence, fatherless Irish mothers and Italian mobsters, and women crucified into madness by misogyny, Bertei speaks through her electrically alive avatar Maddie Twist to flip the victim script. Through her unshakable belief in imagination, poetry, music, and community, she transforms trauma into survival. The immediacy of Maddie's voice is a revelation, providing insight into long-enduring systemic problems without the scrim of adult analysis. In an age of lies and obfuscation, \u003ci\u003eTwist\u003c\/i\u003e is a sharp yet tender arrow to the heart of naked truth. Bertei reveals what it's like to be a queer teen at a time when discovery could be fatal. Maddie peers deeply into the American psyche, refusing to consent to the systems of harm. Along the way we encounter an unforgettable schizophrenic mother, Catholic saints, West Side Story and Oliver!, poet killers, the abyss of rape, girl-gangsters and faux-pimps, teenage lesbian sex, racial tensions and misconceived divides, a drag family known as the Holy Maudlins, Vietnam vets in dark and light, cabaret, true family, rock and roll. And the ultimate saving grace: love. A compelling personal history of queer culture from a working-class view and a glimpse into worlds yet unseen, \u003ci\u003eTwist\u003c\/i\u003e is good medicine: for readers who've experienced similar traumas, for teens caught in the foster care system, for the formerly incarcerated looking for hope, for writers grappling with how to tell their own stories. Most of all, it's for everyone seeking transportive experiences in art and on the page.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Adele Bertei\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1736309331\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781736309339\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e ZE Books\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 03\/14\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 250\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 0.85lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.60h x 5.70w x 1.20d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2023\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/10\/2023 pg. 1","brand":"Adele Bertei","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44069751455999,"sku":"9781736309339","price":28.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_56b41790-89c4-4435-adfc-9853c7bf851f.jpg?v=1685426273","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/twist-adele-bertei-9781736309339","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}