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A Million Little Pieces

On sale

25th April 2013

Price: £16.99

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Selected: Audiobook Downloadable / ISBN-13: 9781848548725
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James Frey wakes up on a plane, with no memory of the preceding two weeks. His face is cut and his body is covered with bruises. He has no wallet and no idea of his destination. He has abused alcohol and every drug he can lay his hands on for a decade – and he is aged only twenty-three.

What happens next is one of the most powerful and extreme stories ever told. His family takes him to a rehabilitation centre. And James Frey starts his perilous journey back to the world of the drug and alcohol-free living. His lack of self-pity is unflinching and searing.

A Million Little Pieces is a dazzling account of a life destroyed and a life reconstructed. It is also the introduction of a bold and talented literary voice.

(P)2013 John Murray Press

Reviews

William Leith, Spectator
Excellent ... Frey's storytelling feels compulsive, involuntary ... poignant and tragic. The forthcoming film will almost certainly be a cult hit ... The good thing about Frey is that he writes as if he needs to; I hope his new compulsion thrives
Observer
James Frey's utterly mesmerising account ... [is] easily the most remarkable non-fiction book about drugs and drug taking since Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ... As a memoir, it is almost mythic. You can imagine it made epic by Martin Scorsese, the auteur of wayward American maleness in all its extremity ... Utterly compulsive
Evening Standard
Frey really can write. Brilliantly. And if you don't think so, f*** you
Literary Review
Clear sighted and intellectually honest
Bret Easton Ellis
A heartbreaking memoir ... inspirational and essential
Independent
This book is definitely going to be huge ... There is no question that he's a good writer. As soon as you start reading the book, Frey's voice rings out. It's clear and sharp and turbocharged ... We love rehab memoirs. This is a good one. It might even be a great one
Irish Sunday Independent
An extraordinary and deeply moving book that will make you think about family, friendship, love, religion, death and perhaps most of all, the human spirit
Kirkus Reviews
Startling and ultimately breath taking
Gus Van Sant
Horribly honest and funny ... Read this immediately
FHM
Harrowing, poetic and rather magnificent
Metro
James Frey spent ten years addicted to alcohol and crack before going into rehab at the age of 23. This unrelenting memoir of his recovery spares no detail. Luckily, he is a good writer - indulgent and uncompromising
Scotsman
Frey is selfish, egocentric, violent and pompous . . . What redeems this insufferably bad mannered book is that, at the end of the day, Frey can write. Brilliantly
The Magistrate
Frey's writing style vividly conveys the horrors of addiction ... dark humour and sharp observations are evidence of a keen intelligence and an unusual strength of character ... a totally absorbing book
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
Harrowing and unflinching ... This is not a book about drugs but about their aftermath ... Though definitely not for the faint hearted, Frey is often darkly and self deprecatingly funny. This is, in essence, a story of redemption and an incredibly moving one. This is a great book
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
This book is a raging, brilliant debut.
Irish Examiner
Crafted from genuine, raw emotion.
Daily Express
'Blisteringly written ... The prose is superb'
Daily Telegraph
'James Frey propelled the memoir of dysfunctional life to the top of the bestseller lists'
Druglink Magazine
'Frey's book combined high quality drug porn with memorable characters and a strong narrative arc that describes a modern version of Rake's Progress.'
Q Magazine, Dave Matthews
'The last remarkable book I read... I couldn't put it down.'
William Leith, Spectator
Excellent ... Frey's storytelling feels compulsive, involuntary ... poignant and tragic. The forthcoming film will almost certainly be a cult hit ... The good thing about Frey is that he writes as if he needs to; I hope his new compulsion thrives
Observer
James Frey's utterly mesmerising account ... [is] easily the most remarkable non-fiction book about drugs and drug taking since Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ... As a memoir, it is almost mythic. You can imagine it made epic by Martin Scorsese, the auteur of wayward American maleness in all its extremity ... Utterly compulsive
Evening Standard
Frey really can write. Brilliantly. And if you don't think so, f*** you
Literary Review
Clear sighted and intellectually honest
Bret Easton Ellis
A heartbreaking memoir ... inspirational and essential
Independent
This book is definitely going to be huge ... There is no question that he's a good writer. As soon as you start reading the book, Frey's voice rings out. It's clear and sharp and turbocharged ... We love rehab memoirs. This is a good one. It might even be a great one
Irish Sunday Independent
An extraordinary and deeply moving book that will make you think about family, friendship, love, religion, death and perhaps most of all, the human spirit
Kirkus Reviews
Startling and ultimately breath taking
Gus Van Sant
Horribly honest and funny ... Read this immediately
FHM
Harrowing, poetic and rather magnificent
Metro
James Frey spent ten years addicted to alcohol and crack before going into rehab at the age of 23. This unrelenting memoir of his recovery spares no detail. Luckily, he is a good writer - indulgent and uncompromising
Scotsman
Frey is selfish, egocentric, violent and pompous . . . What redeems this insufferably bad mannered book is that, at the end of the day, Frey can write. Brilliantly
The Magistrate
Frey's writing style vividly conveys the horrors of addiction ... dark humour and sharp observations are evidence of a keen intelligence and an unusual strength of character ... a totally absorbing book
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
Harrowing and unflinching ... This is not a book about drugs but about their aftermath ... Though definitely not for the faint hearted, Frey is often darkly and self deprecatingly funny. This is, in essence, a story of redemption and an incredibly moving one. This is a great book
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
This book is a raging, brilliant debut.
Irish Examiner
Crafted from genuine, raw emotion.
Daily Express
'Blisteringly written ... The prose is superb'
Daily Telegraph
'James Frey propelled the memoir of dysfunctional life to the top of the bestseller lists'
Druglink Magazine
'Frey's book combined high quality drug porn with memorable characters and a strong narrative arc that describes a modern version of Rake's Progress.'
Q Magazine, Dave Matthews
'The last remarkable book I read... I couldn't put it down.'
William Leith, Spectator
Excellent ... Frey's storytelling feels compulsive, involuntary ... poignant and tragic. The forthcoming film will almost certainly be a cult hit ... The good thing about Frey is that he writes as if he needs to; I hope his new compulsion thrives
Observer
James Frey's utterly mesmerising account ... [is] easily the most remarkable non-fiction book about drugs and drug taking since Hunter S Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas ... As a memoir, it is almost mythic. You can imagine it made epic by Martin Scorsese, the auteur of wayward American maleness in all its extremity ... Utterly compulsive
Evening Standard
Frey really can write. Brilliantly. And if you don't think so, f*** you
Literary Review
Clear sighted and intellectually honest
Bret Easton Ellis
A heartbreaking memoir ... inspirational and essential
Independent
This book is definitely going to be huge ... There is no question that he's a good writer. As soon as you start reading the book, Frey's voice rings out. It's clear and sharp and turbocharged ... We love rehab memoirs. This is a good one. It might even be a great one
Irish Sunday Independent
An extraordinary and deeply moving book that will make you think about family, friendship, love, religion, death and perhaps most of all, the human spirit
Kirkus Reviews
Startling and ultimately breath taking
Gus Van Sant
Horribly honest and funny ... Read this immediately
FHM
Harrowing, poetic and rather magnificent
Metro
James Frey spent ten years addicted to alcohol and crack before going into rehab at the age of 23. This unrelenting memoir of his recovery spares no detail. Luckily, he is a good writer - indulgent and uncompromising
Scotsman
Frey is selfish, egocentric, violent and pompous . . . What redeems this insufferably bad mannered book is that, at the end of the day, Frey can write. Brilliantly
The Magistrate
Frey's writing style vividly conveys the horrors of addiction ... dark humour and sharp observations are evidence of a keen intelligence and an unusual strength of character ... a totally absorbing book
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
Harrowing and unflinching ... This is not a book about drugs but about their aftermath ... Though definitely not for the faint hearted, Frey is often darkly and self deprecatingly funny. This is, in essence, a story of redemption and an incredibly moving one. This is a great book
Waterstone's Books Quarterly
This book is a raging, brilliant debut.
Irish Examiner
Crafted from genuine, raw emotion.
Daily Express
'Blisteringly written ... The prose is superb'
Daily Telegraph
'James Frey propelled the memoir of dysfunctional life to the top of the bestseller lists'
Druglink Magazine
'Frey's book combined high quality drug porn with memorable characters and a strong narrative arc that describes a modern version of Rake's Progress.'
Q Magazine, Dave Matthews
'The last remarkable book I read... I couldn't put it down.'