"I was born into a house of really extremes. My father was violent and abusive to all of us," she says. "My perception of what i understood in those years is definitely one of feard and sorrow and terror and darkness" The author's parents got divorced when she was six; her mother died at the age of 48.
Cheryl Strayed battled through remarkable adversity—and the most intense of hikes—to emerge as one of the best American writers working today.