When Minu Cash was growing up in Cashion, a tough West Valley neighborhood that was eventually annexed into Avondale, she felt different. Her skin was lighter than that of her Mexican parents and siblings, and her “cinnamon-swirl” hair set her even further apart. Cash also contended with an abusive father and a negligent mother who provided no answers to her increasing curiosity about herself. In The Painted Pink Dress: A Daughter’s Story of Family, Betrayal and Her Search for the Truth (Sandra Jones Publishing, $15.95), Cash chronicles her tumultuous childhood and her journey to discover her true identity. Fans of Dani Shapiro’s Inheritance memoir and Family Secrets podcast will appreciate the suspenseful twists of this familial mystery as well as Cash’s gripping, vulnerable storytelling.
