Out of the Bronx - by Irene Sardanis (Paperback)

About the Book

When Irene Sardanis was growing up, danger wasn't just the pimps, hustlers and drug dealers on the Bronx streets, it was something that lurked within the Bronx tenement she called home--and it took the form of her Greek immigrant mother.

Book Synopsis

Irene Sardanis was born into a Greek family in the Bronx in the 1940s in which fear and peril hovered. Her mother had come to New York for an arranged marriage. Her father drank, gambled, and enjoyed other women--and then, when Irene was eleven, abandoned her family altogether. Faced with their mother's violent outbursts in the wake of this betrayal, Irene's older siblings found a way out, but Irene was trapped, hostage to her mother's rage and despair. When she finally escaped her mother as a young adult, she married a neighbor, also Greek, who controlled and dominated her just like her mother always had.

But Irene wasn't ready to let her story end there. With therapy, she eventually found the courage to leave her husband and pursue her own dreams. Out of the Bronx is her story of coming to terms with the mother and past that terrified and paralyzed her for far too long--and of how she went on to create a new life free of those fears.

Review Quotes

2021 Firebird Book Awards First Place Winner in Inspiration
2020 New York City Big Book Awards Winner in Inspiration
2020 Independent Press Awards Winner in Inspirational

"Out of the Bronx is the brave story of a young woman who wants to stay connected with her Greek roots while she tries to escape them. The reader will enjoy the lively prose and energy of Irene Sardanis as she brings alive her childhood and her family, and you'll cheer her on as she discovers the life she wants to live."
--Linda Joy Myers, founder of the National Association of Memoir Writers, author of Don't Call Me Mother, Song of the Plains and The Power of Memoir

"Out of the Bronx is the story of a young woman's struggle to escape and heal from the generational struggle of Greek immigrant parents. As an adult psychologist, she comes to understand her mother's story and to celebrate her own Greek culture. At the close of a beautifully detailed description of a Greek feast, she writes, 'I have filled my empty.' Her story is an important aid to readers who want to better understand the complicated difficulties faced by immigrants."
--Pat Schneider, founder, Amherst Writers & Artists, author of Writing Alone and With Others and How the Light Gets In

"Are you from the Bronx? Have you visited? Neither? Regardless, you're in luck, because Irene Sardanis transports you to this infamous New-York borough in an entirely engaging, revealing, and personal way. The daughter of two Greek-immigrant parents, Sardanis proclaims, 'My mother's village was her extended family. At the (Greek) Festival, the Greeks are mine.' It is there that she 'fills her empty, ' which is vast yet hidden until the publication of this deeply moving and painfully relatable memoir, Out of the Bronx."
--Valerie Haynes Perry, author of Write the Book You Want--Be Your Own Coach

"Irene Sardanis writes with compulsion, ferocity, and immediacy of a wrongly imprisoned person, unexpectedly and surprisingly set free--which, of course, she is: a prisoner of time, place, family, gender, culture, religion and self."
--Mark Greenside, author of I Saw a Man Hit His Wife and I'll Never Be French (no matter what I do)

"Out of the Bronx is a spellbinding tale of how to survive the worst kind of childhood and thrive in later life. Author Irene Sardanis, the daughter of Greek immigrants, takes readers on her healing journey, one that began with a violent mother and often absent, alcoholic father. Richly compassionate, Ms. Sardanis eventually built a career as a therapist and found the love of her life. Along the way, she discovered a hard-won surprise, compassion for her mother and father. The memoir is a haunting reminder of the era when few persons thought of intervening when a young person was abused, and before anyone heard of child protective services. Whether one's parents arrived from another place recently or long ago, Out of the Bronx, offers considerable inspiration for all readers."
--Kristine Mietzner, Contributor, Your Life is a Trip

"Irene Sardanis's writing is as spunky as she is, and we cheer for her as she negotiates her way from being an abused child to a teenager who tries to outwit her mother to an adult who survived two abusive marriages, got her doctorate in psychology, worked as a therapist, and found love. Her insight, understanding, and humor are there in her memoir for the reader to experience. This book could be depressing. Instead, it's an inspiration."
--Karen Lee Pliskin, PhD, anthropologist, author of Silent Boundaries

"Irene Sardanis's coming of age story is filled with drama, resilience, and hope. She follows the arc from her hardscrabble childhood in a Bronx tenement to breaking away from her difficult family to finding her own voice and becoming a therapist and writer. Her memoir, told with grace, honesty and wit, will encourage and inspire others."
--Elizabeth Fishel, author of Getting to 30

"How we come through our childhood is a mystery. Even with dynamics laid out plainly as Irene Sardanis does in her memoir, her voice is so utterly clear you can see her world. She says, 'I knew I could never tell anyone.' Yet she bravely tells us her story. Read Out of the Bronx and you may be honored with a glimpse of the mystery."

--Clive Matson, author of Hello, Paradise. Paradise, Goodbye. and Let the Crazy Child Write

"The memoir, Out of the Bronx tells with Immediacy and grace, how Irene Sardanis not only survived her family of birth, she successfully navigated the choppy waters that followed to grow into a self-assured writer."

--Audrey Ward, author of Hidden Biscuits

"Out of the Bronx is a powerful, emotional recounting of Sardanis's journey, and the unvarnished truth of her experience--which is at once so familiar and yet so uniquely her own--is moving."
--The National Herald

About the Author

Irene Sardanis is a retired psychologist. She was born in New York to Greek immigrant parents. She has been published five times in Sun Literary magazine and in many anthologies, the most recent of which is The Magic of Memoir. Dr. Sardanis has attended writing conferences in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, Mendocino, Pebble Beach, and Berkeley. Occasionally, she moonlights as a jazz vocalist. She resides in Oakland, California, with her wonderful husband, John.