When Julie Hilden's mother became ill her daughter didn't do what was expected of her. Julie chose to abandon her mother and make her own life. As a child, she used books to escape her mother's silent retreats and bewildering rages. When Harvard's acceptance letter came, she fled. She blamed no one for her sad childhood, and she never asked for forgiveness. THE BAD DAUGHTER is Hilden's haunting, intelligent story of how she began discarding all traces of her former life. In the course of the story, however, Hilden discovers that she can never fully escape her past. Each new relationship she forms is influenced by her betrayal of her mother. And in a final, chilling irony, Hilden learns there is a good chance she carries the very same gene for early-onset Alzheimer's that brought on her mother's terrifying fate. "It's hard to decide what is more remarkable about Julie Hilden's THE BAD DAUGHTER: her unusual courage and frankness or her remarkable gifts as a writer. This is an absorbing book and an impressive debut."--Alison Lurie.