A Father's Journey Through His Son's Addiction
BY DAVID SHEFF
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Sheff’s story is a first: a teenager’s addiction from the parent’s point of view—a real-time chronicle of the shocking descent into substance abuse and the gradual emergence into hope. Before meth, Sheff’s son Nic was a varsity athlete, honor student, and award-winning journalist. After meth, he was a trembling wraith who stole money from his eight-year-old brother and lived on the streets.
At its heart Beautiful Boy is an amazingly honest and exquisitely written account of a family’s torturous journey through addiction. It raises questions that reflect the fears of every parent: Where does one’s responsibility to a loved one end? How—and when—should a parent know whether his or her child is substance abusing? And how does a family recover from the wounds afflicted by addiction and get on with their lives? David Sheff has written a powerful and moving family portrait that will resonate soundly with all readers and is sure to become a classic.
At its heart Beautiful Boy is an amazingly honest and exquisitely written account of a family’s torturous journey through addiction. It raises questions that reflect the fears of every parent: Where does one’s responsibility to a loved one end? How—and when—should a parent know whether his or her child is substance abusing? And how does a family recover from the wounds afflicted by addiction and get on with their lives? David Sheff has written a powerful and moving family portrait that will resonate soundly with all readers and is sure to become a classic.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
David Sheff is the author of Beautiful Boy, based on his article, “My Addicted Son,” which appeared in the New York Times Magazine. The article won a special award from the American Psychological Association for “outstanding contribution to the understanding of addiction.” Beautiful Boy, a number-1 New York Times Best Seller, was named the Best Nonfiction Book of 2009 by Entertainment Weekly and it won first place in the 2009 Barnes and Noble Discover Award in nonfiction. Sheff's research and writing about this subject is ongoing;he contributed to HBO's Addiction: Why Can’t They Just Stop and is writing a new book about mental health and addiction care in America. In 2009, Sheff was named to the Time 100, Time Magazine's list of the World's Most Influential People.
Along with The New York Times Magazine, Sheff has also written for The New York Times, Wired, Playboy, Fortune, Rolling Stone, Outside, The Los Angeles Times Magazine, Esquire and Observer Magazine in England, Foreign Literature in Russia, and Playboy (Shueisha) in Japan. He has conducted seminal interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, nuclear physicist Ted Taylor, Congressman Barney Frank, Steve Jobs, Tom Hanks, Betty Friedan, Keith Haring, Jack Nicholson, Carl Sagan, Salman Rushdie, OJ Simpson, Fareed Zakaria, and others. He also wrote an award-winning documentary about John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, and a radio special about Harper Lee’sTo Kill a Mockingbird, both for National Public Radio. He wrote and edited Heart Play: Unfinished Dialogue, which won a Grammy Award nomination for Best Spoken Word Recording of 1984.
Sheff is the author of Game Over, published in a dozen languages, called “the bible of the videogame industry” by The Wall Street Journal, and “beguiling” and "irresistible. . . almost as hypnotic as a successful video game" by the New York Times. Author Gore Vidal said that in China Dawn, Sheff’s book about the Internet revolution in China, “China, at the turn of the century, comes alive.” All We Are Saying, based on Sheff’s interviews with John Lennon and Yoko Ono in 1980, was a Literary Guild Selection book. Charles Champlin, Arts Editor of the Los Angeles Times, wrote: "David Sheff's sympathetic questions evoked so much of the Beatle past and of Lennon's intellectual past and present and future plans that the interview would hardly have been less engrossing and important even it if were not illuminated by tragedy."
Sheff graduated from the University of California, Berkeley. He lives with his family in Point Reyes Station, California.
PRAISE FOR BEAUTIFUL BOY:
"This is a brilliant, harrowing, heart-breaking, fascinating book, full of beautiful moments and hard-fought wisdom. This book is going to save a lot of lives, and help heal a lot of hearts. I absolutely could not put it down: I read it straight through in two nights. "
--Ann Lamott, author of Grace (Eventually), Bird by Bird, and Operating Instructions??
"Sheff's story is honest, reflective and deeply moving. Sadly, it is a story all too relevant for our troubled times. When one of us tells the truth, he makes it easier for all of us to open our hearts to our own pain and to that of others. That’s ultimately what Beautiful Boy is about: truth and healing."
--Mary Pipher, Author of Writing to Change the World and Reviving Ophelia
"Those of us who love an addict -- or are addicts ourselves -- will find BEAUTIFUL BOY a revelation. David Sheff knows all too well what must be endured with faith, and his extraordinary book describes it better than anything else I've read. While painfully candid, BEAUTIFUL BOY is equally optimistic and powerful."
-- Martin Sheen, actor
GIVEAWAY
I AM PLEASED TO HAVE ONE COPY OF
DAVID SHEFF'S CLASSIC, BEAUTIFUL BOY,
TO GIVE AWAY TO ONE LUCKY WINNER
--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!
HOW TO ENTER:
+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHAT YOU READ ABOVE ABOUT BEAUTIFUL BOY THAT MADE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK... DON'T FORGET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING AT DAVID SHEFF'S WEBSITE HERE
+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG AND/OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE AND LEAVE ME YOUR LINK
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON A CURRENT GIVEAWAY THAT YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU MAY COMMENT SEPARATELY FOR EACH TO RECEIVE MORE ENTRIES
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY THAT YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU MAY ENTER EACH WAY SEPARATELY AND THUS EARN MORE ENTRIES
--NO P. O. BOXES
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COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!
HOW TO ENTER:
+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHAT YOU READ ABOVE ABOUT BEAUTIFUL BOY THAT MADE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK... DON'T FORGET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING AT DAVID SHEFF'S WEBSITE HERE
+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG AND/OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE AND LEAVE ME YOUR LINK
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GIVEAWAY ENDS AT
6 PM, EST, AUGUST 22
GOOD LUCK!
103 comments:
It is very hard when a person you love is addicted to something. This sounds like a very good book to read.
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The fact that this is a heartfelt memoir makes me want to read it. Thanks for the giveaway. milou2ster(at)gmail.com
I found it interesting that the book got it start in a magazine article. milou2ster(at)gmail.com
You work so hard to try to do the right thing for your kids, I imagine this is a very emotional story.
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What a heartbreaking journey. I would like to read more of this story.
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The author has written many articles. saubleb(at)gmail(dot)com
This problem is something that I would think everyone would want to know more about. It would be so difficult and personal to write this book.
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An emotional memoir. elliotbencan(at)hotmail(dot)com
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I read some of the interviews on his website.
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This sounds like a very moving, informative memoir. Thanks for the giveaway.
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The author wrote Game Over, a case study of the management practices and culture behind Nintendo's success. Sounds like a fascinating book.
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I would love to read this book and find out how he handled his son's addictions. Please enter me in contest. I am a follower and email subscriber. Please enter me in contest. Tore923@aol.com
What a scary story. I have a teenage son. It is so hard to raise kids these days.
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Have a friend going through this with her dd. Would love to win to pass along to her.
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Having food a llergies myself, this looks interesting.
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I am interested in reading this book because it's written from the point of view of the father of the young man and addict, a viewpoint rarely seen in memoirs about addiction. I'm also interested because David Sheff's son was addicted to meth, a particularly nasty drug and I'm wondering and hoping if he was able to get off the drug.
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There are several great things on David Sheff's website. His Bio page is terrific and the art pictures on the home page are great but I really liked the page with the list of articles Sheff's written...I cannot wait until he includes the links!
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