National Network for Equitable Library Service

On April 14, 1998, Sarah de Vries disappeared from her usual spot on the corner of Princess and Hastings in Vancouver. She became one of the many women who had vanished from the Downtown Eastside—women, most of them sex workers and drug addicts—whose DNA would later be found on the Pickton farm. Reflecting on her adopted sister’s story, through Sarah’s own poetry and journals and the recollections of those close to her at home and downtown, Maggie uncovers the portrait of a bright, charismatic woman who found herself trapped in a downward spiral of self-loathing, prostitution, drugs, and violence. In this achingly honest book, the reader is drawn into revelations and understanding just as Maggie was. Tragic though it was in many ways, Sarah’s life had meaning.