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About Punching Bag

This is a true story. This is my story. It happened to me. I survived. Punching Bag is the compelling story of a young adulthood punctuated by domestic abuse. Rex Ogle, who brilliantly mapped his experience of poverty and hunger in Free Lunch, here charts his struggle to survive a brutal and unpredictable cycle of violence between and at the hands of his mother and stepfather, and to understand the history and situation of his damaged family. Hovering over Rex’s story is the talismanic presence of his unborn baby sister, herself a victim of these circumstances. Compulsively readable, beautifully crafted, and authentically told, Punching Bag is a heartbreaking memoir of trauma with a powerful and abiding message—a story of one teenager’s experience of violence, blame, and forgiveness, and a universal story of hope and survival.