Description

My mother was a prostitute. My grandmother and great-grandmother were prostitutes.
Maybe I should have given the family business a chance…
BBC RADIO 4 PICK OF THE WEEK, Katie Puckrik

‘Eliska’s story is an extraordinary and powerful read. It’s the ultimate book about survival and an against-all-odds fight to make it in life. Highly recommend.’ Clover Stroud

‘A scintillating, devastating memoir, and a fiercely witty and unabashed tribute to the toughness of the human spirit.’ Damian Le Bas
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To westerners, being Gypsy means being wild, romantic and free.

To Eliska Tanzer, it means being rented out to dance for older men. It means living without running water. It means not being allowed a job or an education. It means being stuffed into a bare room with all your aunts and cousins, fighting over the thin, stained blanket the way you fight over the last piece of half-mouldy bread.

It means joining the family prostitution ring when you’re still a child.

But Eliska was given a way out. Slung out of Hoe School and shipped to England in a washing machine box, she thought she had made it. But her dream soon turned into a nightmare.

A moving and timely memoir from a powerful new voice in literature.

Publisher Review

'Eliska's story is an extraordinary and powerful read. It's the ultimate book about survival and an against-all-odds fight to make it in life. Highly recommend.' Clover Stroud 'A scintillating, devastating memoir, and a fiercely witty and unabashed tribute to the toughness of the human spirit.' Damian Le Bas 'A remarkable book about the hardest of beginnings written in a voice that is vibrant, sparkling, full of irrepressible humour, compassionate intelligence and ultimately forgiveness' Catherine Simpson -- Catherine Simpson