The #1 New York Times best-selling story of addiction and a father's love: "A brilliant, harrowing, heartbreaking, fascinating story, full of beautiful moments and hard-won wisdom. This book will save a lot of lives and heal a lot of hearts."--Anne Lamott
Now a Major Motion Picture Starring Steve Carell and Timothée Chalamet.
What had happened to my beautiful boy? To our family? What did I do wrong? Those are the wrenching questions that haunted every moment of David Sheff's journey through his son's drug addiction. David'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 lied, stole money from his eight-year-old brother, and lived on the streets. With poignant candor, Sheff traces the first warning signs--denial, 3 a.m. phone calls--the attempts at rehabilitation, and, at last, the way past addiction. He shows us that, whatever an addict's fate, the rest of the family must care for one another too, lest they become addicted to addiction.
Beautiful Boy is a fiercely candid memoir that brings immediacy to the emotional rollercoaster of loving a child who seems beyond help.
About the Author :
David Sheff is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Beautiful Boy and Clean: Overcoming Addiction and Ending America's Greatest Tragedy. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, New York Times Magazine, Rolling Stone, Wired, and many other publications. His ongoing research and reporting on the science of addiction earned him a place on Time magazine's list of the world's most influential people. Sheff and his family live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Visit David at DavidSheff.com and on Twitter @david_sheff.
Anthony Heald is a well-known film actor whose work includes The Client, Searching for Bobby Fisher, and The Silence of the Lambs. He is also a prolific narrator for audiobooks, such as The Lost World and Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.
Review :
"[A] frightened, beautiful memoir."
-- "San Francisco Chronicle"
"[A] moving, heartbreaking account...Anthony Heald does an excellent job with the reading, his voice and intonation conveying the pain and discouragement Sheff must have felt over his son's condition."
-- "School Library Journal"
"[A] powerful and sorrowful story...[Heald's] narration is exciting and engaging."
-- "AudioFile"
"Affecting...Rich with topical research and personal revelation."
-- "Los Angeles Times"
"Sheff writes with amazing candor...Anthony Heald narrates, poignantly capturing Sheff's highs and lows. Powerful, engaging, instructive."
-- "BookPage (audio review)"
"This is an honest, hopeful book, coming at a propitious moment in the meth epidemic."
-- "Publishers Weekly"
"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"
"Sheff's intense memoir is hard to put down...A must-read for, at the least, anyone in similar straits."
-- "Booklist (starred review)"
"This book will save a lot of lives and heal a lot of hearts."
-- "Anne Lamott, New York Times bestselling author"
