LITTLE SOLDIERS
SJP Lit, Zando: March 2, 2027
In this provocative memoir, award-winning publisher Kate Gale shares the harrowing story of her upbringing in an “intentional community”—a religious cult in which she faced abusive living conditions until her escape at age eighteen.
When Kate Gale was four years old, her mother gave her to an “intentional community” in rural New Hampshire, where a group of three hundred people built unseaworthy boats to ride out the Rapture. She would spend the next fourteen years of her life there, trapped amongst monsters and followers, where the kids were often starved, beaten, and forced to do “joy jobs” instead of schoolwork. While Kate mimicked the religiosity of those around her to earn each meal, she secretly stashed away books from the confiscated belongings of new members. Reading became her salvation and her only link to the outside world—creating a haven for herself within her own mind.
Told through visceral flashes and shards of memory, Little Soldiers recounts Gale’s journey from her earliest memories at the Farm to building her own publishing company—breaking free from the tethers of her past and creating possibilities for other writers. With crackling wit and stunning prose, this is her story of survival, escape and, ultimately, forging herself anew through literature.
When Kate Gale was four years old, her mother gave her to an “intentional community” in rural New Hampshire, where a group of three hundred people built unseaworthy boats to ride out the Rapture. She would spend the next fourteen years of her life there, trapped amongst monsters and followers, where the kids were often starved, beaten, and forced to do “joy jobs” instead of schoolwork. While Kate mimicked the religiosity of those around her to earn each meal, she secretly stashed away books from the confiscated belongings of new members. Reading became her salvation and her only link to the outside world—creating a haven for herself within her own mind.
Told through visceral flashes and shards of memory, Little Soldiers recounts Gale’s journey from her earliest memories at the Farm to building her own publishing company—breaking free from the tethers of her past and creating possibilities for other writers. With crackling wit and stunning prose, this is her story of survival, escape and, ultimately, forging herself anew through literature.
Available for purchase at:
Bookshop• Barnes & Noble • Amazon
Bookshop• Barnes & Noble • Amazon
"Kate reconstructs her past with breathtaking lyricism and heartfelt vulnerability. These pages sing with humor even in the darkest of circumstances. Little Soldiers is a glorious reclamation of the past and a triumphant depiction of one woman’s journey to freedom."
—Sarah Jessica Parker, founder SJP Lit (Zando)
READ THE LITTLE SOLDIERS FEATURE IN PEOPLE MAGAZINE