One of BCC Press’s most recent publications is also one of the coolest things we have ever published: Keira Shae’s How the Light Gets In. This is the true story of a Daughter of Provo growing up on the meanest streets of the nicest city on earth. Those who went to BYU and experienced “Happy Provo” probably had no idea of their city’s dark side of drugs, prostitution, abuse, and neglect. But Keira lived it every day, and she writes about it with a rare gift for pulling moments of grace from the fragments of her early life. Folks, it is really, really good.
As Keira says herself, when you are raised before the internet and with no books in your home, your education stems from the radio waves. The poetry of Third Eye Blind, U2, The Smashing Pumpkins, Guns N’ Roses, and Madonna are prominently displayed in this memoir. It is almost heartbreaking to hear how music influenced Keira as she struggled through great poverty, mental illness, sexual assault, foster care, and physical abuse.
From now until Friday, How the Light Gets In is on sale for a paltry $7.00 per copy. That’s, like, half price, so order two. And the Kindle version is on sale for $2.99, and that is the new free.
Go to Amazon now, and while you wait for it to arrive, take a trip down memory lane by enjoying this hand-picked Spotify playlist below.
There should definitely be more Leonard Cohen references in LDS– . . . er, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saint discourse.