Let Me Stand Alone

Rachel Corrie's determination to make a better, more peaceful world took her from Olympia, Washington, to the Middle East, where she died in 2003 while trying to block the demolition of a Palestinian family's home in the Gaza Strip. A twenty-three-year-old American activist, Corrie also possessed a striking gift for poetry, writing, and drawing. Let Me Stand Alone, a selection of her journals and letters as chosen by her family, reveals her story in her own hand, from her precocious reflections as a young girl to her final e-mails. Corrie's words—whether writing about the looming issues of our time or the ordinary angst of an American teen—bring to life all that it means to come of age: a dawning sense of self, a thirst for one's own ideals, and an evolving connection to others, near and far.