The Strongest Heart is my most personal story yet. It’s about a boy whose father has severe paranoid schizophrenia, whose mother has temporarily left the country, and whose life has been uprooted by a move to Houston, Texas. I, too, grew up under the care of a mentally ill father, and a mother who was emotionally, if not physically, absent. It took a deep toll not only on me as a child, but affected the adult I became, and the relationships I formed, including with my own parents and siblings.
We first met Quag in author Mylisa Larson's Playing Through the Turnaround. Quagmire Tiarello Couldn't Be Better is filled with wry humor and sharp insight that captures the distinctive voice of a young teen forced by his mother’s unstable mental health to recalibrate his outlook and build a new life with found family.
