In the Land of Canaan: A Little Girl's Giants

In the Land of Canaan remarkably captures both the horrors and warmth of a child's ability to survive being terrorized and sexually abused. Yet still, she finds glimmers of hope in her dark world. Francine takes a riveting look at a family deep in the thralls of dysfunction, bringing her twin sister, and their disabled older sister along in this powerful darkness to light memoir.

To Francine and her sisters, the little brown house with the mustard trimmed door was home. A condemned shack with two five-gallon buckets for toilets, holes in the walls and ceilings, and a three-legged cat named, Lady Bug, is just a glimpse into their life in Canaan, Maine. With a Naval Reserves father who mostly speaks in epigrammatic sentences ending in exclamation points and a mother who battles depression, the girls were left to fend for themselves against their uncle, a real-life giant.

In this, David versus Goliath memoir, supernatural strength, undeniable courage, and the liberating power of forgiveness are what Francine finds while living In the Land of Canaan.