Mia Fontaine profile picture

Mia Fontaine

I am here for Friends and Networking

About Me

I am the co-author of Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back (Harper Perennial 2006), the bestselling mother-daughter memoir chosen by Target as their Winter 2007 Book Club selection.
PLEASE NOTE : While I do love to read messages and comments sent to me, my schedule is such (I'm at work on a new memoir, more on that to come soon!) that I may not be able to respond so please don't be offended or take it personally
claireandmia.com
The publisher's description...
How does an L.A. honor student from a loving home end up shooting speedballs in rural Indiana?
What does a desperate mother do when she learns that her runaway daughter had been living a secret life for over a year?
In powerful parallel stories, mother and daughter give vivid first-person accounts of the nightmare that shattered their family and the amazing journey they took to find their way back to each other. Claire Fontaine's relentless, cross-country search for her missing child and ultimate decision to force her into treatment in Eastern Europe is a gripping tale of dead ends, painful revelations and, at times, miracles. Mia Fontaine describes her refuge in the seedy underworld of felons and addicts and the jarring shock of the extreme, if loving, school that enabled her to overcome depression and self-loathing. Both women detail their remarkable process of self-examination and healing with humor and unsparing honesty.
"It takes great tenacity to revisit experiences like the ones described in this book…ComeBack is a testament to the power of the love between a mother and daughter."
- The New York Times
"Best Mother-Daughter Memoir"
- GLAMOUR Magazine
"We strongly recommend this powerful mother-daughter memoir...
Intense, shocking, and ultimately triumphant..."
- Barnes & Noble
"A rare visceral reading experience, Come Back is an unflinching look at the devastating effects of one girl's childhood trauma on both her and her mom. Besides offering lessons in living, loving, and accepting responsibility that could benefit every reader, Come Back is above all a testament to the power and resilience of the complex, primeval love between mother and daughter."
- Edwin John Wintle, author of Breakfast with Tiffany: An Uncle's Memoir
"This is one of those rare books I could hardly put down until I finished--and astounding gift from a mother and daughter who went through hell and then had the courage, passion, and generosity of spirit to relive it again together in these pages. Brilliant--and often funny, too!"
- Leah Komaiko, author of Am I Old Yet?

My Interests

I like: reading, writing (preferably NOT under deadline), sculpting, late-night spades tournaments, exploring new neighborhoods, parks, restaurants, countries, etc., listening to other people's stories, going to the dog park and guessing which dog belongs to which owner, the color green, swimming out in the ocean until I can barely see the shore, good food (especially dessert)Things on my to do before I die list: live in both Europe and a non-Western country, make a significant contribution towards stopping the epidemic of child sexual abuse, expand my culinary abilities beyond pouring cereal out of a box, jump in a taxi and yell, "follow that car!", go the Oscars, have a kid or two,

Movies:

Amores Perros, Indochine, Moonstruck, My Cousin Vinnie, 40 Year Old Virgin, V for Vendetta, House of D, the Crying Game, Empire Records, Memento, Braveheart, Ridicule, Elizabeth, Pulp Fiction, Welcome to the Dollhouse, the Goonies, Velvet Goldmine, Amelie, Reefer Madness, Europa Europa,

Books:

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, The God of Small Things, West With the Night, Breakfast With Tiffany: an Uncle's Memoir, Collapse: Why Societies Rise and Fall, The Painted Bird, Running with Scissors, The Phantom Tolbooth, Clockwork Orange, The Handmaid's Tale, The Prince, anything by Tolstoy, Where the Wild Things Are, anyting by Raoul Dahl, Blink, Gates of Fire, Niel Postman's "The Disappearance of Childhood," The Poisonwood Bible, and my all time favorite: Where the Red Fern Grows.

Heroes:

In no particular order...Jane Goodall, Audrey Hepburn, Simon de Bouvoir, Voltaire, Diane Fossey, my grandmother (who is a Holocaust survivor), Birute Ghaldikas, Christiane Amanpour, Cher, Betty Friedan, Andrew Vachss (abused youth's superhero), Rousseau