What do you do when your mom is your chaos and your compass? With or Without You is Domenica Ruta’s raw, wickedly funny memoir of growing up with a mother who taught her Scorsese before subtraction—and somehow, the importance of storytelling along the way.
Raised in a drug-fueled, debris-filled house north of Boston, Domenica navigated the blurred lines between love and manipulation, brilliance and dysfunction. Kathi, her unpredictable mother, could quote Sartre between drug deals and insisted The Godfather was a better teacher than school.
But this isn’t just a tale of dysfunction—it’s about clawing your way out. Ruta doesn’t flinch from the darkness, including her own addictions, but she finds light in the rubble.
A memoir for fans of The Glass Castle, but with more F-bombs and fewer filters.
