Normal Life: A Memoir

After an unconventional childhood that ended in the tragic death of her mother and the murder of her Alaskan mobster father, Kim Rich was left on her own at the young age of fifteen to fend for herself. Ever since then, she began a nearly lifelong pursuit in chasing what most others had--a normal life. Rich tugs at your heartstrings as you follow her journey toward normalcy, from her teen years, freshly orphaned, through her high school years spent couch-surfing at local families' homes, then through her college years, a failed first marriage, and a rising career as a journalist. Through frank and down-to-earth storytelling, Rich also tells of her grandfather's kidnapping, a frightening health crisis, and a six-year attempt to have children. Picking up right where her first memoir, Johnny's Girl, left off, A Normal Life recounts the author's vivid story of being an ordinary girl faced with extraordinary circumstances--at seemingly every turn in life--with grace, humility, and wit. Born in Hollywood and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, Kim Rich has an MFA degree in writing from Columbia University and has taught at Alaska Pacific University. In her early career she worked as a journalist for the Anchorage Daily News and published a series about her father that was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in Feature Reporting. An essayist, screenwriter, and creative writer, Rich now lives in Louisiana with her husband and three daughters. A Normal Life is the follow-up to her critically acclaimed memoir, Johnny's Girl: A Daughter's Memoir of Growing Up In Alaska's Underworld, which was later adapted into a Hallmark movie.