The Glass Castle

Jeannette Walls recounts her unconventional childhood in this memoir. Raised by nomadic, artistic parents who moved the family constantly and often left them without food, heat, or a fixed home, Walls and her siblings learned early to fend for themselves.

The book follows her from a mining-town Southwest childhood to a chaotic settling-in in Welch, West Virginia, and eventually to New York City, where she builds an adult life apart from her parents even as they remain a persistent, complicated presence.

It is a clear-eyed account of poverty, resilience, and the pull between loyalty to family and the need to leave.