The New York Times
“Mesmerizing…A portrait of something familiar gone wildly, tragically awry”

The Sunday Times
“Exquisitely written”

The Guardian
“A powerful and frequently devastating account of a childhood without boundaries and dominated by loneliness, chaos and fear. Leve’s recollections can be brutal but are made digestible by the elegant sparseness of her prose”

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“The staccato style of this searing memoir enhances the harshness and emotional power of what is a frightening story by a brave author, who resolutely describes herself as ‘a long-distance runner through the canyon of childhood’ — a modest understatement.  This is the story of an endangered childhood, tyrannized by an out-of-control and fear-inspiring mother. This book is an unstinting portrayal of psychological abuse, both insightful and precisely told.”
John Irving

“Sometimes, a child is born to a parent who can't be a parent, and, like a seedling in the shade, has to grow toward a distant sun. Ariel Leve's spare and powerful memoir will remind us that family isn't everything”
Gloria Steinem

“An Abbreviated Life adds a harrowing chapter to the great human tragi-comedy called "We Don't Get To Choose Our Parents." Ariel Leve's extremely readable memoir is, at its heart, a story about surviving childhood -- a trick we must all perform. As such, even in its raw extremes, her story is a universal one.”
Richard Ford

“Out of a childhood that seems just about impossible to have survived, Ariel Leve has written a haunting, indelible story that becomes its own form of redemption.  This is an act of bravery that strikes me not only as a literary achievement, but a human one.”
Dani Shapiro

Press and Reviews