Who lied and said we left the Garden of Eden?

the long version

Providing a rare first-hand glimpse into the life of a homeless person, Who Lied and Said We Left the Garden of Eden is a lucid, eye-opening chronicle of author Daniel Martin's time on the mean streets of Texas and California. As a teenager, he turns to drugs for relief from his Christian fundamentalist upbringing -- a tactic that plunges him into escalating burglaries to pay for his high of choice: speed. Before he's 18, Martin has become a ward of the state. Soon, he finds himself living out of a shopping cart, funding his addiction by selling his body. And that's just for starters. But there's a light at the end of this long, dark tunnel. After an array of treatment and rehabilitation programs, Martin finds the strength to escape his circumstances following a stint in Norwalk State Hospital's Cider House (made famous in Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest). How he did it -- and the belief that his experience proves it's possible for anyone -- lies at the crux of the book's powerful message of hope, faith and perseverance--Cover, p. [4].