The Opposite of Hollywood

When Tosca Ring is seven years old, she abruptly goes on vacation from her home in New York City to Cuernavaca, Mexico with her parents and six siblings during an FBI investigation into her father's Mafia dealings. From there, she is catapulted into a nomadic life marked by secrecy and false identities. Her father's criminality continues, and the family continues to go on vacation, often in the middle of the night, always without warning, through five countries and two continents. As they move, so, too, do Tosca's internal landscapes. Her life becomes a chain of shifting realities, linked by secrets and shaped by growing violence and deceptions. As Tosca grows into young adulthood, she fights back to discover her true identity. The Opposite of Hollywood is based on author Margo Perin's childhood.

MARGO PERIN is the contributing editor of Only the Dead Can Kill: Stories from Jail and How I Learned to Cook & Other Writings on Complex Mother-Daughter Relationships and the poet of San Francisco's permanent memorial Spiral of Gratitude. A nominee for the Pushcart Prize, she has been featured in numerous national and international media, including O, The Oprah Magazine, The San Francisco Chronicle Sunday Magazine, Mexico's El Petit Journal, Holland's Psycologie, Heyday/PEN's Fightin' Words, KRON 4 TV, NPR's Talk of the Nation, and KALW, KPFA, and WAMC.