Piece Of Cake, A

There are shelves of memoirs about overcoming the death of a parent, childhood abuse, rape, drug addiction, miscarriage, alcoholism, hustling, near-death injuries, drug dealing, prostitution or homelessness. Cupcake Brown survived all these things before she’d even turned twenty. And that’s when things got interesting.

The No.1 Sunday Times Bestseller This is the heart-wrenching true story of a girl named Cupcake and it begins when, aged eleven, she is orphaned and placed in the ‘care’ of sadistic foster parents. But there comes a point in her preteen years – maybe it’s the night she first tries to run away and is exposed to drugs, alcohol, and sex all at once – when Cupcake’s story shifts from a tear-jerking tragedy to a dark, deeply disturbing journey through hell. Cupcake learned to survive by turning tricks, downing hard liquor and ingesting every drug she could find while hitchhiking up and down the California coast. At just 16 she stumbled into the terrifying world of the gangsta, dealing drugs, hustling and only just surviving a drive-by shooting. Ironically, it was Cupcake’s rapid descent into the nightmare of crack cocaine addiction that finally saved her. After one four-day crack binge she woke up behind a dumpster. Half-dressed and half-dead, she finally realized she had to change her life or die on the streets – another trash-can addict, another sad statistic. Astonishingly, Cupcake turned her life around and this is her brutally frank, startlingly funny story. Unlike any memoir you will ever read, A Piece of Cake is a redemptive, gripping tale of a resilient spirit who took on the worst of contemporary urban life and survived it. It is also the most genuinely affecting rollercoaster ride through hell and back that you will ever take.

Author Profile

Cupcake Brown was born in San Diego, in the heart of the ghetto. After years of hard work and dedicated study, she achieved her ambition, graduating from law school in the spring of 2001. She now practices law at one of America's largest law firms and is a motivational speaker. She lives in San Francisco.

Reviews

It dazzles you with the amazing change that is possible in one lifetime. We see a woman learn to build a family from strangers who help her because she is another human being trying to overcome horrendous circumstances. It is a story that is poetic in its simplicity, beautifully stripped to the basics.,Extraordinary … An engaging account of a remarkable life filled with pain and wisdom, hope and redemption,Her story of survival and triumph is incredible and often rough. Readers who like gritty, urban nonfiction will enjoy this,Want to be inspired by a story that’s far from run-of-the-mill? Curl up with Cupcake Brown’s harrowing, sugar-free memoir…,Incredibly frank and funny memoir ,Uplifting and inspiring.