Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology: A Memoir, Paperback

"With its keen attention to the language and tactics of the church, Hall's memoir is unique among the assortment of Scientology reports and expos s, offering insight into the certainties that its subjects gain." --The Nation

In the secluded canyons of Hollywood, Sands Hall--a young woman from a literary family striving to forge her own way as an artist--finds herself increasingly drawn toward the certainty that Scientology appears to offer. Her time in the Church, the 1980s, includes the secretive illness and death of its founder, L. Ron Hubbard, and the ascension of David Miscavige. In Reclaiming My Decade Lost in Scientology, Hall compellingly reveals what drew her into the religion--what she found intriguing and useful--and how she came to confront its darker sides and escape.

"Some of the most penetrating, illuminating prose about how an educated and skeptical person could get so deeply into, and then struggle to escape, what everyone around her warned was a dangerous cult . . . brilliant." --The Underground Bunker

"If it is Scientology's offer of a life with meaning that hauls her in . . . it is its approach to meaning that keeps her . . . Hall's fascination with this is palpable." --Camille Ralphs, The Times Literary Supplement

SANDS HALL is the author of the novel Catching Heaven and Tools of the Writer's Craft. She teaches for the Iowa Summer Writing Festival and for the Community of Writers at Squaw Valley. Find out more at sandshall.com.