No way home : a memoir of life on the run

Format:

Book

Title:

No way home : a memoir of life on the run

Other title(s):

Memoir of life on the run

Author:

Wetherall, Tyler, 1983- author

ISBN:

9781250112194

Edition:

First edition.

Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 2018.

Physical Description:

305 pages ; 22 cm

Summary:

""In this wondrous and richly detailed coming of age story, Tyler Wetherall follows the breadcrumbs of her childhood to discover a family home that is unlike any other."--Katy Lederer, author of Poker Face Tyler had lived in fifteen houses and five countries by the time she was nine. She didn't think this was strange until Scotland Yard showed up in her bucolic English village, and she discovered her family had been living a lie. Her father was a fugitive and their family name was an alias. They had been living in California back in 1983 when the Feds originally caught up with her dad; it was the same year Tyler was born. Her parents decided to go on the run with the three young children, and they spent the next few years traveling across Europe, assuming different identities, living in a series of beautiful places, from Portugal to Tuscany, paid for with drug money. Now her dad had fled once more, except this time he didn't take her with him. Despite the danger involved, for the following two years he flew Tyler and her siblings out to see him in secret wherever he was in hiding, until on her 12th birthday Scotland Yard followed Tyler to the Caribbean island of Saint Lucia, where her father was eventually captured. It was over the summers spent visiting her dad in prison in California, as she grew into an increasingly self-destructive teenager, that he told her the truth about his criminal life. He had been a pot smuggler in the seventies, and his organization had b[r]ought in marijuana worth nearly a half billion dollars from Thailand. In this emotionally detailed and carefully wrought memoir about growing up as a fugitive's daughter, Tyler Wetherall pieces together the story of her parents' past, which ultimately helps her understand her own"-- Provided by publisher.

Wetherall lived in fifteen houses and five countries by the time she was nine. She didn't think this was strange until Scotland Yard showed up, and she discovered her father was a fugitive and their family name was an alias. In 1983, the year she was born, her parents went on the run with three young children, traveling across Europe, their expenses paid for with drug money. It was over the summers spent visiting her dad in prison in California that he told her the truth: he had been a pot smuggler in the seventies, and his organization had bought in marijuana worth nearly a half billion dollars from Thailand. Here Wetherall pieces together the story of her parents' past, which ultimately helps her understand her own. -- adapted from publisher info.

Personal Subject:

Wetherall, Tyler, 1983-

Subject(s):

Children of criminals -- United States -- Biography.

Fathers and daughters -- United States -- Biography.

Fugitives from justice -- Family relationships -- United States.

Women authors, American -- Biography.

Geographic Term:

United States.

Genre:

Autobiographies.

Biographies.

Holds:

Available:*

Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... McMinnville Public Library	928 Wetherall, Tyler	Searching... Unknown

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

One of PureWow's "20 Books We Can't Wait to Read in 2018" and "Books to Read in April" * One of InStyle UK's "Best New Books to Read in 2018" * One of LitHub 's 20 Books You Should Read This April * One of Bustle 's "5 Gripping Memoirs Under 300 Pages To Read In One Weekend"

A memoir of growing up on the run--and what happens when it comes to a stop.

"Lucid, tender, exquisitely re-imagined, and compulsively readable." --Jessica Nelson, author of If Only You People Could Follow Directions

"In this wondrous and richly detailed coming of age story, Tyler Wetherall follows the breadcrumbs of her childhood to discover a family home that is unlike any other." --Katy Lederer, author of Poker Face

Tyler had lived in thirteen houses and five countries by the time she was nine. A willful and curious child, she never questioned her strange upbringing, that is, until Scotland Yard showed up outside her ramshackle English home, and she discovered her family had been living a lie: Her father was a fugitive and her name was not her own.

In sunny California, ten years earlier, her father's criminal organization first came to the FBI's attention. Soon after her parents were forced on the run taking their three young children with them, and they spent the following years fleeing through Europe, assuming different identities and hiding out in a series of far-flung places. Now her father was attempting one final escape--except this time, he couldn't take her with him.

In this emotionally compelling and gripping memoir, Tyler Wetherall brings to life her fugitive childhood, following the threads that tie a family together through hardship, from her parents' first meeting in 1960s New York to her present life as a restless writer unpacking the secrets of her past. No Way Home is about love, loss, and learning to tell the story of our lives.

Author Notes

Tyler Wetherall is a writer and journalist living in New York. She has written for The Guardian , The Times , and The Irish Independent . Her short fiction has been published in The Gettysburg Review , and others.

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

A British-American journalist's account of growing up the daughter of a fugitive father.Until she was 9, Wetherall knew herself as Tyler Kane, the daughter of an American businessman and a former British model. Her family lived a peripatetic life that had taken them to "thirteen houses, five countries and two continents" before she was 10; yet Wetherall never saw these moves as odd. But when Scotland Yard detectives questioned her mother about a man they called Ben Glaser, the author suddenly realized that her entire life had been a lie. Everythingfrom her last name to the travels that had taken her family from California to Italy, Portugal, France, and Britainhad been ruses her father used to evade capture for criminal activity. Shuttling deftly between present and past, Wetherall pieces together the fragments of early years spent on the run to make sense of her life and her relationship to her fugitive father. She visited him in secret at hideouts in France and on the island of St. Lucia and came to know him as the man who had made his fortune smuggling marijuana from Thailand. Desperately confused, the author struggled to reconcile "the Dad who spent hours, years, teaching me how to swim, how to ski, [and] how to ride a bike" with the criminal sought by international authorities. Glaser was finally captured when the author was 12, and for the next several years, she visited him at the California prison where he served his sentence. Her unresolved rage toward her father wrought havoc with her teenage years. Eventually, she made peace with him, realizing that for all she had lost, she had regained both a father and a new perspective on a life story he had helped define. Revealing and emotionally nuanced, Wetherall's book probes the dark underside of family relationships to uncover the meaning of acceptance and forgiveness.A compassionate memoir of self-discovery. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

When Wetherall's mother finally explained why two Scotland Yard officers were at the house, the explanation defied belief. Wetherall's father was a wanted man, and the last name embroidered on her school uniform was not her own. The fact that her father always flew separately on vacation and their multiple moves (13 houses, 5 countries, and 2 continents before she was 9 years old) wasn't due to her parents' eccentricities but because her father was a fugitive. Until her father was captured, on her twelfth birthday, Wetherall and her sister would fly to wherever he was in hiding for vacations and return home lying to their friends about where they had been and where their father was. In fact, the most central rule to the author's childhood was to say nothing at all about anything. As Wetherall grew into a self-destructive teenager, she demanded that the truth be revealed. Wonderfully suspenseful and an unexpected page-turner, this story of an immensely likable family under an incredible strain will stay with readers.--Spanner, Alison Copyright 2018 Booklist