The author of Grand Central Winter: Stories from the Street, which has sold over 125,000 copies in its English edition alone, returns with the prequel to his first memoir. Telling of the hardships of his childhood that led to his famous fall and rise, the reader gains an ever sharpening awareness of one child's life, built on the moving sands of early homelessness, strengths and happiness where they are found, and the occasional kindness and persistance of those around him. Like Dorothy Parker cradling a martini, he makes no apologies' - New York Times Book Review'