From the Back Cover: Imagine a young boy who has never had a home. His only possessions are the old torn clothes he carries in a paper bag. His only world is isolation and fear. Although this young boy has been rescued from his alcoholic mother, the real hurt is just beginning—he has no place to call home. This is Dave Pelzer’s long-awaited sequel to A Child Called “It”. Answers will be exposed and new adventures revealed in this compelling story of his life as an adolescent. Now considered an F-Child—a foster child—young David experiences the instability of moving in and out of five different homes. Those who feel that all foster kids are trouble—and unworthy of being loved just because they are not part of a real family—resent his presence and force him to suffer shame. Tears and laughter, devastation and hope: all create the journey of this little lost boy who desperately searches for the love of a family. Though many in society ridicule the foster-care system and social-service fields, Dave Pelzer is a living testament to the necessity of their existence. Whether you are a fan of the author or picking up his work for the first time, The Lost Boy is a sequel that will move you and stand alone as a shining inspiration to all.

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About the Author: A retired Air Force crew member, Dave Pelzer played a major role in Operations Just cause, Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Dave was selected for the unique task of midair refueling of the then highly secretive SR-71 Blackbird and F-117 Stealth Fighter. While serving in the Air Force, Dave worked in juvenile hall and other programs involving “youth at risk” throughout California.

Dave’s exceptional accomplishments include personal commendations from former Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. While maintaining a rigorous, active-duty flight schedule, Dave was the recipient of the 1990 J.C. Penney Golden Rule Award, making him the California Volunteer of the Year. In 1993 Dave was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Young Americans (TOYA), joining a distinguished group of alumni that includes Chuck Yeager, Christopher Reeve, Anne Bancroft, John F. Kennedy, Orson Welles and Walt Disney. In 1994 Dave was the only American to be selected as one of The Outstanding Young Persons of the World (TOYP), for his efforts involving child abuse awareness and prevention, as well as for instilling resilience in others. During the Centennial Olympic games, Dave was a torchbearer, carrying the coveted flame.

Dave is currently working on a book based on overcoming obstacles and achieving one’s innermost best, and recently published the third part of his trilogy, entitled, A Man Named Dave.

When not on the road or with his son, Stephen, Dave lives a quiet life in Rancho Mirage, California, with his wife and box turtle named Chuck.

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By the Same Author: A Child Called “It”: An Abused Child’s Journey from Victim to Victor (1993) and A Man Named Dave: A Story of Triumph and Forgiveness (1999, Dutton), the first and final volumes in Mr. Pelzer’s autobiographical trilogy; Help Yourself: Celebrating the Daily Rewards of Resilience and Gratitude (2000, Dutton), a self-help book based upon his experiences and life lessons; and The Privilege of Youth: A Teenager’s Story of Longing for Acceptance and Friendship (2004, Dutton), the story of Mr. Pelzer’s adolescence.

What is the distance between dream and nightmare? Sri Lankan born, Canadian raised, James shared a dream with most adopted children—finding his biological parents. The killer wave which devastated Sri Lanka on Boxing Day of 2004 gave James the impetus and the opportunity to finally embark on his quest for identity. Long before nature turned against her, Sri Lanka, Land of Serendipity, had turned against herself. Her own quest for identity had led her into a hell where neighbor attacked neighbor and brother killed brother. The search for his roots led James to Batticaloa in eastern Sri Lanka, once famed for its singing fish, but today a place synonymous with death and destruction by man’s inhumanity and nature’s ferocity. What he did not know was that forces beyond his control or understanding—the ethnic conflict, the Karuna Rebellion and the Tigers’ practice of child conscription—had already determined the final outcome of his journey and his own destiny.

From the Back Cover: When she fell pregnant as a teenager in Ireland in 1952, Philomena Lee was sent to the convent at Roscrea in Co. Tipperary to be looked after as a “fallen woman.” She cared for her baby for three years until the Church took him from her and sold him, like countless others, to America for adoption. Coerced into signing a document promising never to attempt to see her child again, she nonetheless spent the next fifty years secretly searching for him, unaware that he was searching for her from across the Atlantic.

Philomena’s son, renamed Michael Hess, grew up to be a top Washington lawyer and a leading Republican official in the Reagan and Bush administrations. But he was a gay man in a homophobic party where he had to conceal not only his sexuality but, eventually, the fact that he had AIDS. With little time left, he returned to Ireland and the convent where he was born: his desperate quest to find his mother before he died left a legacy that was to unfold with unexpected consequences for all involved.

The Lost Child of Philomena Lee is the tale of a mother and a son whose lives were scarred by the forces of hypocrisy on both sides of the Atlantic and of the secrets they were forced to keep. A compelling narrative of human love and loss, Martin Sixsmith’s moving account is heartbreaking yet ultimately redemptive.

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About the Author: Martin Sixsmith was born in Cheshire and educated at Oxford, Harvard and the Sorbonne. From 1980 to 1997 he worked for the BBC, as the Corporation’s correspondent in Moscow, Washington, Brussels and Warsaw. From 1997 to 2002 he worked for the British Government as Director of Communications. He is now a writer, presenter and journalist. His previous books are The Litvinenko File, Moscow Coup: The Death of the Soviet System and two novels, Spin and I Heard Lenin Laugh.

From the Back Cover: —“If your mum wanted you, she’d have kept you”—
—“I’d rather know the worst than not at all”—

But imagine discovering that your mother is a down-and-out alcoholic, as Colette did; or tracing a mother who refuses to acknowledge you, as Tom did; worst of all, imagine learning from a bundle of yellowing newspaper cuttings of the appalling scandal surrounding your mother, as Georgina did...

These are poignant stories of deep and conflicting emotions, of children whose quest is to unravel the most fundamental ties of blood which bind us all.

Journalist Polly Toynbee’s conclusions are so far-reaching and important that they have provoked a storm of controversy and debate.

Polly Toynbee, the journalist and author, spent three years researching and writing this investigation. It is not a “sociological” work, in the narrow sense of that term, although she comes to some hard-hitting conclusions. Rather it is a series of thrilling stories which portray people at their most determined and their most vulnerable, engaged in a search of supreme importance. The results of their quests are often surprising, sometimes distressing, but they all agree that it is better to know the truth than be left in the dark.

Polly Toynbee’s research led her to the conclusion that a searching look into the present adoption procedures was sorely needed.

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About The Author: Polly Toynbee writes a regular weekly column in the Guardian. She was previously a feature writer on the Observer. in 1975 she won the Catherine Pakenham Memorial Prize for journalism, and she has twice received British Press Awards.

She is the author of The Way We Live Now (1983), Hospital (1977), A Working Life (1971) and a novel, Leftovers (1966). Polly Toynbee is married with four children and lives in Clapham, London.

From the Dust Jacket: As she grew up in 1970s Oakland, California, role models for Mary Williams were few and far between: her father was often in prison, her older sister was a teenage prostitute, and her mother struggled to raise five children alone. When Mary was thirteen, a silver lining appeared in her life: she spent a summer at Laurel Springs Children’s Camp, run by Jane Fonda and her then husband, Tom Hayden. Mary flourished at camp, and over the course of several summers, she confided in Fonda about her difficulties at home. During one school year, Mary suffered a nightmare assault, which she kept secret until she told a camp counselor and Fonda. After providing care and therapy for Mary, Fonda invited her to come live with her family.

Practically overnight, Mary left the streets of Oakland for the star-studded climes of Santa Monica. Jane Fonda was the parent Mary had never had—outside the limelight and Hollywood parties, Fonda was a wonderful mom who helped with homework, listened to adolescent fears, celebrated achievements, and offered inspiration and encouragement at every turn.

Mary’s life since has been one of adventure and opportunity—hiking the Appalachian Trail solo, working with the Lost Boys of Sudan, and braving the frozen reaches of Antarctica. Her most courageous trip, though, involved returning to Oakland and reconnecting with her biological mother and family members, many of whom she hadn’t seen since the day she left home. The Lost Daughter is a chronicle of her journey back in time, an exploration of fractured family bonds, and a moving memoir of self-discovery.

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About the Author: Mary Williams’s work has appeared in The Believer, McSweeney’s, and O: The Oprah Magazine. She is the author of the children’s book Brothers in Hope: The Story of the Lost Boys of Sudan. She lives in the Southwest.

From the Back Cover: This anthology is a collection of writings by the authors of the “Lost Daughters” blog. “Lost Daughters” is an independent, collaborative writing project founded in 2011 in an effort to give an accessible writing platform for adopted women. Boasting nearly 30 authors, Lost Daughters is written and edited entirely by adopted women, several of whom balance multiple roles in adoption and foster care along with being adopted.

The mission of Lost Daughters is to bring readers the perspectives and narratives of adopted women, and to highlight their strength, resiliency, and wisdom. Lost Daughters aims to critically discuss the positives and negatives of the adoption institution from a place of empowerment and peace.

I once was Lost, but now I’m FOUND... Journey with Evangelist Nina L. Wells as she sacrificially becomes transparent to show you how Christ can turn any situation around. After struggling for years to be delivered from her past, Evangelist Wells emerges victorious as she presents Lost FOUNDation—her profound autobiography—to the world. As a ward of the state of Pennsylvania from the age of two, to being emancipated at the age of eighteen, Evangelist Wells shares her testimony of how, after being abandoned by her birth parents and the foster care system, she was forced to learn to adapt and survive. Having no stable base of support, guidance, or love, Evangelist Wells learned the code of the streets and played the game well. Survival was her motive, by any means necessary. She was Lost deep in the sin of her past and sunk even deeper as she struggled for acceptance. After years of disappointments, failures, and defeats, Evangelist Wells desperately cried out to the Lord to lift her from her pit of shame and hurt. She pleaded with Him to help her find His light in the midst of her darkness; and instantly Jesus FOUND her! He pulled her up and placed her on the Solid Rock. From that point forward, her FOUNDation became sure, her faith stabilized, and her yearning for unconditional acceptance and love manifested itself in her life. Read all about the wonderful blessing God has bestowed upon Evangelist Nina L. Wells as she goes forth into all the world and shares the grace, mercy, and love of Jesus Christ, knowing that He is the Solid Rock on which she stands...all other ground is sinking sand.

This story is about my 10-year long struggle to find my birth family in Ontario Canada. I began my search in 1983. Because of the overly restrictive adoption laws in Ontario, I was denied any and all information on my birth family. I basically had to teach myself how to become a private investigator in order to finally be able to meet the people who I have a biological bond with. My search involved hundreds of hours of investigative work; researching in libraries, contacting private detectives, going to the land registry office, extracting information from hospitals and motor vehicle departments, attending parent finder support groups, attempting to steal garbage to search for evidence, etc. The cover shows a picture of myself and my full biological brother, Andy, together in 2002 (nine years after I finally met him). I was deprived of knowing my own brother for the first 32 years of my life. It was a real struggle to find Andy and all of my birth family (mother, father, half sisters and brothers, aunts and uncles) but it was certainly well worth the effort. I am now trying to raise awareness as to the unnecessary hardship this puts on people, and my hope is for the future that the laws will be changed and thousands of adult adoptees and birth parents will be able to have fast and happy reunions.

From the Back Cover: Like many of us, Charlotte Lopez has dealt with momentary crises with friends and siblings, struggled with adult authority, and looked forward to college and a successful career. Unlike many of us, though, she grew up without a true family.

In Lost in the System, Charlotte tells her inspiring story. A foster child from the age of two, she bounced around foster homes until she went to live in a home that she expected to be permanent. But while this house was safe and secure, it never became her home, because her foster parents wouldn’t adopt her.

After eleven years of waiting, Charlotte moved to an emergency shelter for children in crisis. Although the house rules were tough—especially for a teenager—Charlotte kept up her grades, participated in sports and school activities, and even entered the Miss Vermont Teen USA pageant. In August 1992, she was crowned Miss Teen USA, an achievement she had always dreamed of.

Still, she felt incomplete. It wasn’t until she was legally adopted by Jill Charles and Al Scheps, at age 17, that she found a real home and family.

Told with Charlotte’s characteristic warmth, energy, and passion, Lost in the System describes her journey through the foster-care system—but more important, through that minefield called adolescence—in search of an emotional home and solid family ties.

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About the Author: Charlotte Lopez, Miss Teen USA 1993, is an undergraduate at the University of California at Irvine.

Susan Dworkin is a playwright and journalist and coauthor of The Guide to a Woman’s Health.

This is the true story of a child born to a nineteen-year-old unwed mother. Placed lovingly for adoption, he is instead thrust into the quagmire of the Michigan foster care system. “Stability” would be a word found in a dictionary, not in daily life, as he is moved fourteen times in eleven years. He is finally rescued and given a “home” at Boys Town. At eighteen, cast into the world of the unknown, without anyone or anyplace to call home, he goes forth with only hope and determination. Growing into adulthood, he searches for birth parents, an unknown heritage and sexual identity. Discovery of “true self” enables him to confront and overcome brutal and emotionally damaging realities from childhood that can no longer stay buried deep within his memory. This is the story of his difficult life battle, but more importantly, his ultimate victory...healing!

At 29, within a month, I left my husband, lost my job, went broke, and had almost all of my belongings stolen. Yet somehow the only question that kept going through my mind was ... who the hell am I? This memoir recalls my stumblings through my thirties as I tried to figure it all out. From finding my biological parents and discovering where I came from, to exploring my sexuality and finding out who I wanted to become. I tried to be brutally honest, so prepare yourself to cry, laugh, cringe and maybe judge, sometimes all in one paragraph. Hopefully, at the end you’ll see that not only can you survive, but you can thrive ... especially in a great pair of red heels!

From the Dust Jacket: Adoption is one of the great untold stories of our recent past. In Britain in the last century up to a million children were given up by their mothers to be brought up by other people. One in four families in Britain has direct experience of adoption, and the impact of adoption practice since World War I is still felt today, with mothers and children years later desperate to find each other. It is an epic tale of loss, guilt, identity and lifelong hurt, but also of joy, reunion and redemption.

In this moving memoir, written to accompany the major ITV1 documentary series of the same name, Sue Elliott tells her own story of being adopted in the 1950s, and her search nearly forty years later for the woman who gave birth to her. In the course of her emotional journey she uncovers the human consequences of post-war adoption policy, and much else besides.

Drawing on a wide range of intimate personal experiences, the book outlines the forces that shaped twentieth century adoption practice—from the legacy of Victorian moral values, appalling child welfare conditions and the stigma of illegitimacy, through changing attitudes to unmarried mothers and the impact of abortion and the Pill.

Sue Elliott’s illuminating story of a unique twentieth century experiment tells us as much about the social and sexual upheavals of the past century as it does about our most basic human need—to know where we come from.

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About the Author: Sue Elliott trained as a teacher then spent thirty years working in television. Adopted as a baby in 1951, she embarked on a search for her birth mother forty years later and has used her experience as a member of a voluntary agency adoption panel. She lives in London with her university lecturer partner.

Through silent tears thirteen-year-old Lacy looked out the window on her way to the home for unwed mothers. In her heart she held a secret about what happened on Pioneer Lane. She took that secret to her grave at the age of 48. Lacy’s love child Colette was adopted at infancy. Now an adult, her own experience of motherhood sends Colette on a search for her birth parents. She works her way through a maze hunting for missing pieces of the puzzle. Obstacles shift her search to unconventional methods. She enlists the help of intuitives and uses her own developing abilities. The secret is revealed as her amazing journey unfolds.

Are 500,000 Children at Risk? Robert E. Colwell shows America what 500,000 children endure each and every day in America’s foster care system—and a disproportionate number are black youngsters. No one knows better than Colwell. At the age of eleven. Robert Colwell was placed in an orphanage when his mother died suddenly. With his father also deceased, he lived in various foster homes until the age of eighteen, at which point he was given $50 and told, “You’re on your own.”

From the Back Cover: When adoptee Carol Shipley met her birth mother after half a century of longing to know her origins, the two parts to her story—before adoption placement and after—finally came together. Love, Loss, and Longing: Stories of Adoption chronicles her own healing story of search and reunion as well as the story of her adoptive daughter whose moving reunion with her birth family freed her to embrace her First Nations heritage. She recounts heart-wrenching and life-giving stories of birth mothers who love and let go of their children into adoption. The stories of the journey of infertile couples towards adoptive parenthood reveal tenacity and hope that overpowers despair.

Blending photos and adoption stories with current adoption literature, Carol highlights the benefits of open adoption, the right of adoptees to know their origins, and the right of gays and lesbians to adopt. This book lends support for better adoption practices and adoption legislation in the future. It is about people inside the adoption circle who express generous love for each other in unique ways.

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About the Author: Carol Bowyer Shipley, M.S.W., brings a unique perspective to the world of adoption as an adoptee, an adoptive mother and an adoption professional.

As adoption practitioner and birth parent counsellor, she worked for 25 years in the private adoption system and public child welfare, agencies in Ontario with adoptees, birth parents and adoptive parents. Recently retired, she lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband, Ken. Her four children, their spouses, and seven grandchildren constantly enrich her life. This is her first book.

When Sr. Miriam James Heidland’s life as a successful college athlete proved unfulfilling, she went searching for something deeper and ended up falling in love with Jesus. By charting her own journey toward wholeness, Heidland invites young Catholics to pursue their own relationship with Jesus. Although originally full of athletic ambition and goals for a career in sports news, Heidland was transformed in a very slow but deep way during her undergraduate years, moving from party girl to bride of Christ. In Loved as I Am: An Invitation to Conversion, Healing, and Freedom through Jesus, Heidland helps readers learn from her experience of seeking love in the wrong places and instead finding it in Christ. She shares her struggles—learning she was adopted, battling alcoholism, and healing from childhood sexual abuse—as signs of hope that anyone who desires to know Christ can find him and be loved intimately by him in return. By bringing readers into Heidland’s healing process, Loved as I Am provides a gentle and subtle template for finding peace and freedom in Jesus.

From the Back Cover: Mei-Ling Hopgood, one of the first wave of Asian adoptees to arrive in America, comes face to face with her past when her Chinese birth family suddenly requests a reunion after more than two decades.

In 1974, a baby girl from China arrived in America, the newly adopted child of a loving couple in Michigan. Mei-Ling Hopgood had an all-American upbringing and never really identified with her Asian roots or harboring a desire to uncover her ancestry. She believed that she was lucky to have escaped a life that was surely one of poverty and misery.

Then, when she was in her twenties, her birth family came calling. Not the rural peasants she expected, they are a boisterous, loving, bossy, complicated middle-class family who hound her daily—by phone, fax, and letter, in a language she didn’t understand—until she returns to Taiwan to meet them. As her sisters and parents pull her into their lives, the devastating secrets that still haunted this family begin to emerge.

Spanning cultures and continents, Lucky Girl brings home a tale of joy and regret, hilarity, sadness, and great discovery, as the author untangles the unlikely strands that formed her destiny.

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About the Author: Mei-Ling Hopgood is an award-winning journalist who has written for the Detroit Free Press, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, National Geographic Traveler, and the Miami Herald and has worked in the Cox Newspapers Washington bureau. She lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina, with her husband and their daughter.

Autobiography of the teenaged author, who made her way from an illegitimate birth in a Bangkok slum to middle class luxury in Southern California with the swinging couple who adopted her.

From the Back Cover: Judith Lucy has been cracking jokes about her parents for much of her career. But when a birth relative’s casual comment implied that she despised them, Judith was shocked. Sure, for years she had been talking about Ann and Tony Lucy like they were one-dimensional Irish nut bags who’d ruined her life, but who—in the end—doesn’t love their parents?

If only she’d been told before the age of 25 that they weren’t actually her parents...

From A is for Adoption to Z is for Zorba, this is the full story of one particular family, shown at their best, at their worst, and every letter in between.

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About the Author: Judith Lucy is a local funny lady who has turned her hand to radio (The Ladies Lounge, Foxy Ladies, The Friday Shout, The Arvo) until she was sacked; television (The Late Show, The Mick Molloy Show) until the last regular show she was on was axed; and movies (Crackerjack, Bad Eggs), although she has not been asked to appear in one of these for years. Judith is probably best known as a stand-up comedian who has taken her eight one-woman shows around the country and overseas. Unfortunately, her last tour was dogged by feet trouble and vaginitis, so having run out of career options (seriously, she is just a heartbeat away from performing opposite someone in an animal costume in a shopping centre) she has written this book about her parents.

Inspirational, family-oriented story of overcoming life’s many vicissitudes. There are tears and laughter, joy and restoration. This book is uniquely Christian and if you believe God is the same as yesterday and works today, as well, you may enjoy this story.

From the Back Cover: I was brought up to believe that my residual memory of my real parents, and even my own name, were figments of an over-fertile imagination. In effect, that my deep-seated physical memory was a lie.

Sandy McCutcheon, one of Australia’s most popular national broadcasters, was adopted into a respectable, well-off family, but it was one in which he never felt at home. His yearning for acceptance was matched by an instinct to rebel, and by frustration with his parents’ refusal to acknowledge his adoption. He did not learn the truth about his birth for fifty years, and when he did the circumstances were so convoluted as to defy belief. Eventually he discovered a family with uncanny parallels between its generations, where history has been repeated not once but several times.

Sandy’s extraordinary story sheds light on things that affect us whether we’re adopted or not: on how memory helps shape our sense of self, on the importance of not harbouring resentment, on the way the heart knows things that the mind does not. And the way life never stops delivering surprises...

The Magician’s Son is an unflinchingly honest and poignant account of growing up without a history.

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About the Author: Sandy McCutcheon was born in New Zealand and has travelled and worked all over the world. He has been a theatre actor and director and has written plays, novels, children’s books and works of non-fiction. He moved to Australia in he 1970s and currently lives in Brisbane, where he is the presenter and producer of Radio National’s Australia Talks Back and Australia Talks Books.

(Available from the author for $15; write to W1162 County Highway P, Stratford, WI 54484)

Kenneth G. Moore is a dynamic individual who has continued to prove people wrong. Despite living with Tourette’s, Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), he believes in a future and is willing to go after his dreams and hopes with a faith that few dare to follow. His journey through adoption, foster care, treatment centers, residential care, hospitals, group homes and eventually into independence is a testimony that one should never doubt the power of the human spirit. Yes, there are successful outcomes even in the midst of darkness. Those who listen to Ken tell his story or read his book Makin’ It will leave changed because Ken believes in “I do!”

Although raised by a wealthy, loving family, Mary Bradford Clark didn’t know how she could face the rejection of her biological mother. When it came to accepting her past, she struggled. The Making of a Mother explores Mary’s journey to embrace her history and move onward to strengthen her relationship with her own daughter. This artful memoir beautifully portrays the promise of hope blooming over disappointment. Take a closer look at trauma and the path to healing in The Making of a Mother.

From the Dust Jacket: For years, Tim Green seemed to be living the American dream. A handsome, intelligent honor student, he was also a strapping 6’2”, 250-pound All-American defensive end at Syracuse University, where he led the historically successful football program back to national prominence. On the strength of his stellar college football years, Tim became a coveted first-round draft choice of the Atlanta Falcons, going on to a sensational career in the NFL.

But appearances can be deceiving. There was a void that numerous academic accolades and the adoration of cheering fans could not fill. Though he was raised in a loving and supportive family, Tim, an adopted child, had always longed to find his biological mother. But it was not until the mother of an ex-girlfriend confessed to him that she had given up a son—a son who would have been about Tim’s age—that the full weight of what it meant to be adopted came down on him. Tim acutely felt the need to locate his biological mother, to let her know that he was all right, that he was successful and happy. Empathizing with the feelings of loss and regret that a mother who had given up a child must feel, he sought not only to find answers to his own questions but to answer those of his biological mother—a woman who somewhere, sometimes, must have thought of the son she could not keep. Bolstered by the love and support of his adoptive parents, Tim embarked on an odyssey to discover the woman who had given him his lite—and then left him before she could become a part of it.

A Man and His Mother is the extraordinary story of one man’s courageous search for the mother he never knew. Expertly written and filled with brilliant insights and heart-wrenching remembrances, as well as gentle humor, it is more than just a compelling look at what it means to be adopted. From Tim’s life as a gangly youngster to competing in the grueling National Football League to having children of his own, this is an impassioned exploration of the special relationship between a man and his mother, and how deeply this relationship affects everything we do in our lives.

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About the Author: Tim Green is the author of three novels as well as the New York Times bestseller The Dark Side of the Game. A collegiate All-American defensive end and former number one draft choice of the Atlanta Falcons, he is now a lawyer, a sports commentator for Fox Television, and a regular contributor to National Public Radio. He lives with his wife, Illyssa, and their three children in upstate New York.

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By the Same Author: American Outrage (2007, Warner Books) and Pinch Hit (2012, Harper).

From the Dust Jacket: “All those years you tried your best to break me, and I’m still here. I make mistakes, I screw up, but I learn. I don’t blame others for my problems. I stand on my own. And one day you’ll see, I’m going to make something of myself.”

These words were eighteen-year-old Dave Pelzer’s declaration of independence to his mother, and they represented the ultimate act of self-reliance. Dave’s father never intervened as his mother abused him with shocking brutality, denying him food and clothing, torturing him in any way she could imagine. This was the woman who told her son she could kill him any time she wanted to—and nearly did.

The more than one million readers of Pelzer’s previous bestselling memoirs, A Child Called “It” and The Lost Boy, know that he lived to tell his courageous story. But even years after he was rescued, his life remained a continual struggle. Dave felt rootless and awkward, an outcast haunted by memories of his years as the bruised, cowering “It” locked in his mother’s basement. Desperately trying to make something of his life, Dave was determined to weather every setback and gain strength from adversity.

Dave’s dramatic reunion with his dying father and the shocking confrontation with his mother—along with the discovery of her secret past—led to his ultimate calling: mentor to others struggling with personal hardships. From a difficult marriage to the birth of his son, from an unfulfilling career to an enduring friendship, Dave was finally able to break the chains of his past, learning to trust, to love, and to live.

A Man Named Dave is the gripping conclusion to his inspirational trilogy. With stunning generosity of spirit, Dave Pelzer invites his readers on his journey to discover how he turned shame into pride and rejection into acceptance—how a lost, nameless boy finally found himself in the heart and soul of a man who is free at last.

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About the Author: Dave Pelzer is the international bestselling author of A Child Called “It” and The Lost Boy. He travels throughout the country inspiring hope and resilience in countless individuals. Dave has received commendations from Presidents Reagan, Bush, and Clinton, and in 1994 was the only American recipient of the Outstanding Young Persons of the World award.

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By the Same Author: A Child Called “It”: An Abused Child’s Journey from Victim to Victor (1993, Omaha Press) and The Lost Boy: A Foster Child’s Search for the Love of a Family (1994, Omaha Press), the first and second volumes in Mr. Pelzer’s autobiographical trilogy; Help Yourself: Celebrating the Daily Rewards of Resilience and Gratitude (2000), a self-help book based upon his experiences and life lessons; and The Privilege of Youth: A Teenager’s Story of Longing for Acceptance and Friendship (2004), the final chapter in his story of survival.

There are moments that teach you to trust in God. As a young adopted boy, Dick Stenbakken sat alone in a car outside a tavern, wondering if his parents were ever going to come out. It would be one of many moments in his life that would call him to trust his heavenly Father. Years later, as an Army chaplain, that trust would be put to the test in a string of intense encounters, including having a gun pointed straight at him—by an American soldier. There are moments that make you laugh out loud. Whether he was pulling pranks on unsuspecting friends, showing off his trick foot that can turn around 180 degrees, or ending up at a honeymoon destination that wasn’t quite what he expected, Dick discovered that life is best when it’s full of laughter and surprises. There are moments that prove that God has something better for you than you ever imagined. As he rose in rank and assignment in the military, Dick had unexpected phone calls and encounters that changed his life. In one-on-one relationships and in his work at a Pentagon-level job, he learned that if you want to make a difference in this world, you can.

From the Dust Jacket: This true story of boyhood brings to life the elegant Far East of the thirties—and the sharply contrasting years of the Japanese occupation of Manila. Robin, the child, begins his voyages of discovery in the stately Empress of Japan and in the imperious limousine that sped his family in style straight to the gates of World War Two.

Separated from his parents when war breaks out, Robin is forced into early independence. He confronts on his own the experiences of detention home and prison camp, culminating in the long starvation at Santo Tomás.

Notable in his life are the magnificent black woman, Mrs. Sanders, who teaches him the ways of survival—the rowdy boys, his fellow prisoners, who find a hilarious way of dealing with an obstreperous lady acrobat—the kindly Mr. Ohashi—the brutal Lieutenant Abiko.

A book of tenderness and gaiety in the face of stark events, Manila, Goodbye celebrates the triumph of the human spirit.

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About the Author: Robin Prising was born in 1933 in Vancouver, Canada, and taken as an adopted child to Manila. His early years in the Far East are the subject of this memoir. His mother was the English actress Marie Leslie, a noted beauty; his father a wealthy American tobacco exporter. Then came December 1941. Within a month the eight-year-old boy and his family became prisoners of war.

After the war, Prising left formal schooling at the age of sixteen to pursue his interest in the theatre. He has lectured and traveled widely, living in London, Rome, and now in New York City. There he teaches speech for the theatre and is the editor of the Helikon Press, which publishes fine books of poetry.

Maria Pasqua was born of impoverished Italian peasants in 1856. Gifted with exceptional beauty, at an early age started modeling for artists in Rome where she was an instant success. Her whole future was determined when a rich and childless Englishwoman (The Comtesse de Noailles, a member of the Baring family) adopted her—Maria’s father sold her for the price of a vineyard—and she was brought up in the somewhat bizarre principles in which the Comtesse believed. The Comtesse was an eccentric on a grand scale—she had an invincible faith in the beneficent effect of the breath of cattle, and would keep a cow tethered by every ground floor window so that its wholesome breath could infuse the room—she refused to travel when the wind was in the East, or to stay in a house with oak trees nearby—she had red glass fitted in her windows for reasons of her health, and wore a fur hat in bed. Maria married a country doctor 20 years her senior and despite the peculiarities of her husband and the constant interference of the Comtesse, found herself imprisoned within the routine of a typical country house of the period. The author is the granddaughter of Maria Pasqua.