Between Two Trailers: A Memoir -- J. Dana Trent, Hardcover

A powerful, unforgettable memoir about a girl who escapes her childhood as a preschool drug dealer in rural Indiana--only to find that no one can really "make it out" until they make peace with where their story began: home

Home, it turns out, is where the war is. It's also where the healing begins.

Dana Trent is only a preschooler the first time she uses a razor blade to cut up weed and fill dime bags for her schizophrenic father, King. While King struggles with his unmedicated psychosis, Dana's mother, the Lady, a cold and self-absorbed woman whose personality disorders rule the home, guards large bricks of drugs from the safety of their squalid trailer. But when the Lady impulsively plucks Dana from the Midwest and moves the two of them south, their fresh start results in homelessness and bankruptcy. In North Carolina, Dana becomes torn between her gritty midwestern past and her newfound desire to be a polite southern girl, struggling to reconcile her shame with an ache to figure out who she is, and where she belongs.

But the past is never far behind. After persevering through childhood and eventually graduating from Duke University, Dana imagines that her hidden Indiana life is finally behind her, only to realize that running from her upbringing has kept her from making peace with the people and places that shaped her. Ultimately, Dana finds that though love for family is universally complicated, there is no shame in survival, and for those who want it, there is always a path home.

Author: J. Dana Trent
Publisher: Convergent Books
Published: 04/16/2024
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.80lbs
Size: 8.30h x 5.70w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780593444078

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 03/01/2024 pg. 18
Publishers Weekly 11/27/2023
Kirkus Reviews 03/15/2024
Booklist 04/01/2024 pg. 11

About the Author
J. Dana Trent is a speaker, professor, award-winning author, and minister. A graduate of Duke Divinity School, she teaches world religions and critical thinking at Wake Technical Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina.