On top of this, Maria’s father, who had a violent temper, was often announcing his plans for Maria, to one day make her “the best little prostitute on the block”. When her mother abandons them life for Maria only becomes more desperate. Daddy’s Little Earner is the first hand account of the years of mental, physical and sexual abuse Maria suffered at the hands of her father.

The real focus of this book is, of course, Maria’s relationship with her father. Despite the torment he inflicts upon her, the young Maria stills wants nothing more than her father’s love. Her dogged attempts to win his affection—an affection that is continually out of reach—are heartbreaking. No child should be made to feel as if they have to earn their parent’s love, but this is what Maria’s father expects from her, setting her an endless series of cruel and unreasonable tasks. Imagine a little girl hiding in an alley in the middle of the night, scared, freezing, and exhausted, but too afraid to go home without the bottles of whiskey she was instructed to steal. Or forced to drag sacks of dirty laundry over miles of snow to her grandmother’s house, because her father would never dream of washing them himself. Or finally, devastatingly, selling her body on street corners so her father can sit inside pubs and drink all night. It really is beyond imagination. And yet, unfortunately, all of it is true.

Considering the content this is clearly not a book you would read for entertainment value, rather it serves to expose the truth of Maria’s terrible upbringing. Looking back as an adult Maria wonders why so many of the people who knew about her situation and had the opportunity to act never did. As the reader you will be left wondering this too.