Written in his mother's unique voice, John Leigh Walters pushes the boundaries of memoir in A Very Capable Life, the extraordinary journey of a seemingly ordinary woman. Zarah Petri was a child when her family left Hungary to establish a new life in Canada in the 1920s. With courage and innovation, Zarah and her family survived the Depression-even if it meant breaking the law to do so. In celebrating Zarah Petri, A Very Capable Life pays homage to all "ordinary" women of the early twentieth century who challenged society's conventions for the sake of survival.