by Bill Clegg
First published 2018
Bill Clegg sits in his Manhattan office, one of the city's most successful young literary agents. He has built a thriving business, maintains a beautiful home, and commands respect throughout the publishing world. Then crack cocaine enters his life. The drug strips away his professional success, his relationships, and his health. Clegg finds himself in grimy backrooms across Manhattan's underbelly, engaging in anonymous sex and living in squalor. Paranoia consumes his thoughts as his mind fractures under the addiction's grip. After losing his business, his home, and most of his friends, Clegg faces a choice between recovery and death. He commits to ninety days of sobriety, believing this milestone will break the addiction's power over him. But the path to recovery proves more treacherous than the descent into addiction. Each day presents new challenges as Clegg confronts the wreckage of his former life and the ongoing temptation to use again. The story follows his struggle through both the devastating fall and the grueling climb back toward sobriety.
Genres: literary-fiction, addiction, contemporary, biography-memoir
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: redemption, self-discovery
Setting: Manhattan
Period: 21st-century
400 pages · Paperback · Vintage
Content warnings: addiction, drug-use, substance-abuse