Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (UK)

If I Didn't Define Myself For Myself, I Would Be Crunched Into Other People's Fantasies For Me And Eaten Alive. A Little Black Girl Opens Her Eyes In 1930s Harlem. Around Her, A Heady Swirl Of Passers-by, Car Horns, Kerosene Lamps, The Stock Market Falling, Fried Bananas, Tales Of Her Parents' Native Grenada. She Trudges To Public School Along Snowy Sidewalks, And Finds She Is Tongue-tied, Legally Blind, Left Behind By Her Older Sisters. On She Stumbles Through Teenage Hardships -- Suicide, Abortion, Hunger, A Christmas Spent Alone -- Until She Emerges Into Happiness: An Oasis Of Friendship In Washington Heights, An Affair In A Dirty Factory In Connecticut, And, Finally, A Journey Down To The Heat Of Mexico, Discovering Sex, Tenderness, And Suppers Of Hot Tamales And Cold Milk. This Is Audre Lorde's Story. It Is A Rapturous, Life-affirming Tale Of Independence, Love, Work, Strength, Sexuality And Change, Rich With Poetry And Fierce Emotional Power.