In this extraordinary book, Alexander Masters has created a moving portrait of a troubled man, an unlikely friendship, and a desperate world few ever see. A gripping who-done-it journey back in time, it begins with Masters meeting a drunken Stuart lying on a sidewalk in Cambridge, England, and leads through layers of hell...back through crimes and misdemeanors, prison and homelessness, suicide attempts, violence, drugs, juvenile halls and special schools--to expose the smiling, gregarious thirteen-year-old boy who was Stuart before his long, sprawling, dangerous fall.
Shocking, inspiring, and hilarious by turns, STUART: A LIFE BACKWARDS is a writer's quest to give voice to a man who, beneath his forbidding exterior, has a message for us all: that every life--even the most chaotic and disreputable--is a story worthy of being told.
Media Buzz
Fresh Air - NPR - June 15, 2006 All Things Considered - June 11, 2006
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