<p><p><b>a Major Voice In Fiction Debuts With The Story Of A Teenage Runaway On The Streets Of 1980s New York.</b><p>teenage Joon Is A Korean Immigrant Living In The Bronx Of The 1980s. Her Parents Have Crumbled Under The Weight Of Her Father's Infidelity; He Has Left The Family, And Mental Illness Has Rendered Her Mother Nearly Catatonic. So Joon, At The Age Of Thirteen, Decides She Would Be Better Off On Her Own, A Choice That Commences A Harrowing And Often Tragic Journey That Exposes The Painful Difficulties Of A Life Lived On The Margins. Joon's Adolescent Years Take Her From A Homeless Shelter To An Escort Club, Through Struggles With Addiction, To Jobs Selling Newspapers And Cosmetics, Committing Petty Crimes, And Finally Toward Something Resembling Hope.</p><h3>the New York Times - Alison Mcculloch</h3><p>with The Addiction Memoir Frequently Trumping The Novel For Depths Of Degradation And Despair, Where Can The Fiction Writer Go With Such A Story? In Her First Novel, Mun&#8230;takes A Spare, Unsentimental Path&#8230;joon's Is A Familiar Story, But It's Fresh Enough Here To Catch The Reader Up In Wanting An Answer To Its Familiar Question: Will Hope Triumph Over Heroin?</p>