We Were Smiths
We Were Smiths: Falling From Grace is a unique, insider account of growing up within the Mormon Church, where lineage and family birthright define one’s standing and importance. My great-great-grandfather was one of the few Smiths to come west as a young orphan with Brigham Young, making my family a rarity in Utah with a bloodline connection to the Church’s original founder and prophet.
We Were Smiths: Falling From Grace will appeal to readers who are curious about Mormons and interested in an up-close portrait of a family collapsing under the weight of their special Mormon legacy, and the resulting spirals into addiction and self-destruction.
My first-person account details how my sister and I break away from The Church and our family, both fleeing Utah, me to NYC and my sister, to California, trying to jettison our past and create new versions of ourselves. It’s a vivid picture of our different challenges, and sometimes similar struggles to survive outside the Mormon faith and culture, resulting in our vastly different outcomes.