The Stories of Devil-Girl

Devil-Girl is a storyteller smaller than a stain and larger than life, a mythic figure roaming the globe. Born into Brooklyn housing projects and the nightmares of her immigrant family, she becomes a runaway in the human marketplace of the streets of New York. Accompanied by her sense of outrage and sense of humor, ghosts of the ancestors and her prophetic vision, she moves from silence through rage into deep alliance with the marginalized.


"Poignant and fierce, this book is moving,
beautifully written, and urgently relevant."


"Devil-Girl's stories are all of our stories, all of
the 'discarded and demonized', all of us who
have had to fight to survive, to fight to tell our
truths. Achtenberg's wise survivor, Devil-Girl,
is witness and seer, and her words are sustenance.
There is much pain in this book, much
wisdom, and a kind of beauty that sears itself
into memory, a fierce beauty that is as necessary
as air. Read this book."

-Lisa D. Chave, Author of Destruction Bay; In An Angry Season


"Achtenberg is a cutting-edge voice in the literature of the postglobalization
age, an era in which we are uprooted geographically
and spiritually, and redefining what it means to be home.
What a superbly written book! Read it and be changed."

-Demetria Martinez, Author of Mother Tongue


"Stunning and original! Powerful 'make it new' language that
creates-through the runaway energy and precise detail of the
storytelling voice-a disturbing world in all its particularities,
only to transcend it by grappling with what's at stake in the
larger world."

-Stratis Haviaras, Founder and former editor of Harvard Review


"An amazing piece of bravura writing! Devil-Girl takes us from
destitution to seedy glamour as a homeless vulnerable young
woman tries to survive the savagery of the streets. Poignant and
fierce, this book is moving, beautifully written, and urgently relevant."

-Kathleen Spivack, Author, Director: Advanced Writing Workshop


Book #1 in the Reflections of America Series

Learn about the author at www.AnyaAchtenberg.com

Modern History Press www.ModernHistoryPress.com

an imprint of Loving Healing Press