For fans of transformational memoir, Glassman shares an impactful account of her formative experiences, first growing up in a dysfunctional family and later embracing her LGBTQ identity.

Growing up in 1950s New York, Diana Glassman has much to contend with from a young age: a frequently loving but mercurial brother, an ineffective and self-involved mother, and a father who beats her brother and, until she is nine years old, sexually abuses her.

It’s only after starting junior high school that Diana begins to find her footing. There, friendships, which she easily makes, become deeply important to her, and she substitutes those—along with a series of love affairs, as she grows older—for the love she doesn’t always get at home. After her father sends her to Europe with her best friend when she is nineteen years old, she also develops a lasting passion for travel. But it’s not until after her return from Europe, when she moves out of her parents’ home, that she’s finally able to begin to forge an independent life of her own—exploring her sexuality and becoming her own person, one stumbling step at a time.

An emotional examination of the lasting effects of family violence and incest, In My Life is Glassman’s candid—and, ultimately, hopeful—account of her growth arc from a shy, abused young girl to a woman who eventually learns to love herself, finds peace, and forms a positive, long-lasting love relationship.