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Outlook

Factual: Life Stories

True stories of ordinary people and the extraordinary events that have shaped their lives.

Outlook: 07/02/2011

07/02/2011

BBC World Service - Outlook, 07/02/2011

The woman who grew up with drug-addicted parents but ended up graduating from Harvard

From living on the streets to attending Harvard

Liz Murray was brought up in New York in the Bronx, by parents who were both drug addicts. From an early age she and her sister had to learn to fend for themselves.  Liz's education suffered terribly and by the age of sixteen she was sleeping on park benches and in subways.  Although she seemed destined to become just another tragic statistic, by the time she was twenty she was a student at Harvard - one of America's most prestigious universities.  She tells Lucy Ash about her remarkable life.

Breaking Night: A Memoir of Forgiveness, Survival, and My Journey from Homeless to Harvard is published by Century.

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