Wonderland: A Boston Tale of Hustling Hard and Breaking Even

A poignant memoir of growing up inside Boston’s criminal underworld--and breaking free.

Nicole Treska was born to a family of gangsters. In the 1970s, during Boston’s mob wars, her grandfather’s diner was an unofficial headquarters for Whitey Bulger and other members of the Winter Hill Gang. Nicole’s father was also an associate of the gang: there was talk that, before Nicole could walk, her stroller was used as a decoy to sell drugs. In 1985, her father too was arrested and tried--sentenced to two years in prison for federal drug trafficking.

Wanting to offer a better life to her children, Nicole’s mother moved her and her sister out of Boston. As an adult, Nicole strove to separate herself from her past, establishing a career as a writer and professor in New York City. But when she learns her father’s sister has passed away, she returns to her hometown and reunites with her dad--now stooped and struggling to walk on a bad knee. As she gets reacquainted with him and the old neighborhood, Nicole is forced to reconcile with her harrowing childhood and its lingering impact.

With gritty and gripping prose, Wonderland masterfully explores and elucidates the line between helping family and hurting ourselves.

Nicole Treska’s is the author of the debut memoir, Wonderland. Her short fiction has been published in New York Tyrant Magazine, Epiphany Magazine, and Egress: New Openings in Literary Arts. Her interviews and reviews are up at Electric Literature, Guernica, The Millions, BOMB, The Rumpus, and then some. She is a grant director and adjunct professor at The City College of New York, and lives in Harlem with her husband and three-legged dog, Nadine.