Road Song

In 1969, at the age of six, the author and her three siblings moved from Los Angeles to Alaska with their parents, who longed to live in the wilderness. Beset by poverty and hardship during the first winter, they were also victims of tragedy when a neighbor's sled dog attacked Kusz and tore away one side of her face, including an eye. She recounts the story of the years that followed, when she underwent reconstructive surgery, became a teenage mother and with her family struggled to eke out an existence in a harsh and difficult environment. They endured the long Alaskan winters in a trailer, built a house and determinedly remained together as a family. Eschewing sentimentality and self-pity, Kusz paints a moving portrait of herself and her funny and heroic family in this engrossing, poetically written memoir. (Oct.)