North of Normal: A Memoir of My Wilderness Childhood, My Counterculture Family, and How I Survived Both

Caught up in the counterculture movement of the late 1960s, Cea Person’s grandfather traded the suburban comforts of California for a pot-smoking, free-loving, clothing-optional life under a canvas tipi in the Canadian wilderness.

As a child, Cea knew little about the world beyond her eccentric, hand-to-mouth existence, but her teenage mother, Michelle, found something lacking: a man. With Cea in tow, she hits the road for an insane journey full of ill-fated adventures and the company of spectacularly unsuitable men.

Craving stability and safety, all Cea wants is to be normal. Left to practically raise herself, she promises to find a different life from her usual and dysfunctional upbringing. Determined and resilient, Cea reinvents herself through her successful international modelling career, but her new life brings its own challenges.

Warm and vibrant, Cea’s voice transports readers through a rivetingly dysfunctional childhood in the Canadian wilderness, adolescent modeling success, motherhood and her struggle to confront-and come to terms with-the past.