Publisher's Synopsis
At 10 years old, Ann Marie was living in an orphanage. At nine, she'd been breaking and entering into homes, shoplifting from stores, and scaling two-story buildings just to spit on the people below. She was the Devil's errand boy. Except she was a girl. And her brother was the Devil.
Ann Marie Conklin brings to this complex account of my own tragic childhood a deeply layered understanding of how the determination and ferocity of the human heart can ultimately transcend the most difficult of circumstances. This book, an immersive memoir that is a raw, uncensored narrative brought to life by a damaged but determined antihero who draws the reader into her harrowing journey of crime, chaos, abuse, and betrayal, gives the reader full access behind the victim's curtain of silence and shame. In that space, they will come to understand a life discarded, and will not only share in her pain, but also in her wild spirit, her light, her tenacity, and her ultimate knowledge of the transformative power of love. It's a story that insists on hope and stubbornly believes; not just in survival, but that there truly is such a thing as redemption.
A Grave for the Devil is written with humanity, vivid authenticity, and subversive humor; the book reads like a novel while retaining the integrity of the actual events.
