In 1969, six-year-old Natalie Kusz moved with her family from California to Alaska. In Road Song, she recounts this experience and the ensuing tragedies and triumphs. Her parents, deeply religious and disillusioned with the violence and artificiality of modern life, decide to leave their somewhat comfortable existence in California, and take their four children on an lifelong odyssey of pain, poverty, sacrifice and triumph.

Alaska, at the time the Kusz’s made it their home, was truly the last frontier, a place where modern-day pioneers cleared their own land, built their own houses, and tried to forge an existence in an unforgiving and forbidding world. The family lived for years in an trailer without electricity or plumbing, hocking beloved items and scavenging in the local dump for life’s necessities, including food. Shortly after settling in the state, Natalie was attacked by sled dogs and almost died. With her face ripped apart, including the loss of one eye, she would endure years of excruciating surgeries and be forced to contend with forever being ‘different’ from those around her. But although that experience forms the crux of her memoir, it’s also about so much more.

There are three major elements to this memoir, all equally compelling. Two of these are the family’s life in Alaska and their struggles there; and Natalie’s accident and how it affected both her and her family. But the third, and just as vital to this memoir, is Kusz’s portrayal of the powerful love and loyalty the members of this family have for one another. I was in awe of Natalie and her family’s determination to survive against all odds, even if I didn’t understand or agree with some of their actions. I first learned of this incredible memoir when reading through Nancy Pearl’s Book Lust, and since then I’ve seen in mentioned in other ‘great books’ lists as well – and it certainly deserves all the praise it’s received and more.