When her father was murdered in 1966 Rebecca Wilson’s family unraveled.
A HOUSE WITH NO ROOF is her gripping memoir of surviving the legacy of
violence that forty years later continues to cast its shadow.
“If I were a
professor and taught a class on the legacy of violence,
I would make everyone
read this book.”
—Dr. Joel Fay, retired police officer and psychologist
“Rebecca
Wilson’s A HOUSE WITH NO ROOF is a deeply touching story of spirit, of whatever
thrust helps us keep moving forward, and of the sweetness and sorrow of
families.”
—Anne Lamott, author of Imperfect Birds
In 1966, Rebecca Wilson’s father, a Union Leader and
civil rights activist, was assassinated on the street in San Francisco.
Rebecca—known throughout as “Becky”—was three years old. A House with No Roof is Wilson’s gripping memoir of how the murder
of her father propelled her family into a life-long search for solace and understanding.
Her brother, Lee, turns to drugs and violence; sister Amalia, the beauty of the
family; hits the road and vanishes for several years; and Becky is left to be
raised by Barbara, her well-meaning but troubled mother.
Following her father’s murder, Barbara, desperate
for closure and peace, uproots the family and moves to Bolinas, California. In
this small, coastal town of hippies, artists, and “burnouts,” the family begins
spiraling downward. To cope, Barbara turns to art and hangs a banner that
loudly declares, “Wilsons are Bold.” But she still succumbs to her grief,
neglecting Becky and opting to be a friend and confidant, instead of a mother,
to her young daughter. As Becky fumbles and hurtles toward adulthood with
little guidance, no boundaries, and plenty of anger she comes to learn the full
truth of her father’s death—a truth that threatens to steal her sanity and
break her spirit.
Told with humor and candor—and with love and family
devotion at its heart—A HOUSE WITH NO
ROOF: AFTER MY FATHER’S ASSASSINATION, A MEMOIR (Counterpoint Press,
November 2011, paperback) is a brave account of one daughter’s struggle to
survive.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR. . .
Rebecca Wilson was born in San Francisco and raised in Bolinas,
California. She graduated from Scripps Women’s College Phi Beta Kappa and
traveled to Scotland on a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship. During her time in
Scotland she published her first book, Sleeping with Monsters: Conversations
with Scottish and Irish Female Poets. She lives in Fairfax, California.
PRESS
CONTACT
Lorna
Garano
510-280-5397
