{"product_id":"9781635575149","title":"The Heart and Other Monsters : A Memoir","description":"\u003cstrong\u003eThe Heart and Other Monsters\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor(s): Rose Andersen\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\"Impossible to put down. It haunts me still.” \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e-\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Fact of a Body: A Murder and a Memoir\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA riveting, deeply personal exploration of the opioid crisis-an empathic memoir infused with hints of true crime.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn November 2013, Rose Andersen's younger sister Sarah died of an overdose in the bathroom of her boyfriend's home in a small town with one of the highest rates of opioid use in the state. Like too many of her generation, she had become addicted to heroin. Sarah was 24 years old. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eTo imagine her way into Sarah's life, Rose revisits their volatile childhood, marked by their stepfather's omnipresent rage and their father's pathological lying. As the dysfunction comes into focus, so does a broader picture of the opioid crisis and the drug rehabilitation industry in small towns across America. And when Rose learns from the coroner that Sarah's cause of death was a methamphetamine overdose, the story takes a wildly unexpected turn.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAs Andersen sifts through her sister's last days, we come to recognize the contours of grief and its aftermath: the psychic shattering which can turn to anger, the pursuit of an ever-elusive verdict, and the intensely personal rites of imagination and art needed to actually move on. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReminiscent of Alex Marzano-Lesnevich's \u003ci\u003eThe Fact of a Body\u003c\/i\u003e, Maggie Nelson's \u003ci\u003eJane: A Murder\u003c\/i\u003e, and Lacy M. Johnson's \u003ci\u003eThe Other Side\u003c\/i\u003e, Andersen's debut is a potent, profoundly original journey into and out of loss.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReview(s):\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Visceral . . . Part story of America’s opioid crisis, part grief memoir, and part tale of a possible murder, Andersen’s deeply personal book roils with anger and empathy that, at its very heart, is a lament for the profound hole left in the wake of a sister’s tragic death.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Daily Beast, “Best Summer Reads”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Not since Leah Carroll’s\u003ci\u003e Down City\u003c\/i\u003e have I come across a true crime memoir with such beautiful, spare, and moving prose.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eCrimeReads, “July’s Best Crime Nonfiction”\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"I picked up \u003ci\u003eThe Heart and Other Monsters\u003c\/i\u003e because of the resonance of its subject matter in my own life—I lost a cousin to an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2018, and an aunt to an accidental OxyContin overdose in 2019. What I didn’t know in choosing THAOM was how it would move me to act . . . I have Andersen’s harrowing, beautiful memoir to thank.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eVol 1. Brooklyn\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Combining the agonizing emotional intensity typical of narratives about losing a sibling with the memoiristic style of a murder investigation successfully complicates the reading experience. \u003cb\u003eA literary grief memoir combined with a skillfully unfolded murder mystery.\u003c\/b\u003e\" -\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e Kirkus (starred review)\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A riveting and raw story . . . This tragic tale of addiction will resonate deeply with readers.\" - \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Poignant . . .\u003ci\u003e The Heart and Other Monsters\u003c\/i\u003e is a biography, cautionary tale and murder mystery, masterfully blended with a memoir burdened by grief and guilt for crimes committed by others.\" -\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e Shelf Awareness\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Heart and Other Monsters\u003c\/i\u003e is one of the rare books in the marketplace that is both written by a recovering addict as well as being the person who bore witness to the downward spiral of addiction and ultimate death of her closest family member.\" - \u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eNew York Journal of Books\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Complex, dark, emotional, and enthralling, Rose Andersen’s \u003ci\u003eThe Heart and Other Monsters\u003c\/i\u003e invaded my dreams from the first page to the last. She combines the fierce love of a devoted sister with the forensic brilliance of a ferociously talented writer. The result is impossible to put down, gorgeous, and will utterly break your heart. It haunts me still.\" - \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eAlex Marzano-Lesnevich, author of THE FACT OF A BODY: A MURDER AND A MEMOIR\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"A kaleidoscopic portrait of sisterly love, addiction and abuse, set against the backdrop of an American epidemic, Rose Andersen's \u003ci\u003eThe Heart and Other Monsters \u003c\/i\u003eslips form and genre to give words to ineffable loss. Emotionally taut, bare and honest, Andersen's memoir held me rapt from start to finish.\" -\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003e Allie Rowbottom, author of JELL-O GIRLS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Rose Andersen’s \u003ci\u003eThe Heart and Other Monsters\u003c\/i\u003e will split your heart right open. It’s both a love letter to the sister she lost and an investigation into what caused her death. Heartbreaking, illuminating, and poetic, Andersen’s voice cuts through the gruesomeness of the facts she uncovers with the type of love that transcends death. More than a memoir, this book reassembles all the shapes that grief takes.\" -\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003e Erin Khar, author of STRUNG OUT: ONE LAST HIT AND OTHER LIES THAT NEARLY KILLED ME\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"\u003ci\u003eThe Heart and Other Monsters\u003c\/i\u003e dares to ask: when is love not enough? Rose Andersen searches for an answer in this vulnerable, unforgettable, and transcendent book that explores the pain of understanding what we can never truly know about another person.\" - \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eChelsea Hodson, author of TONIGHT I'M SOMEONE ELSE\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Rose Andersen has given us a page turning, crisply written and heart wrenching story of two sisters coming of age in the social calamity and psychic mayhem that is contemporary America. The Heart and Other Monsters is a tragic tale full of struggles with addiction, personal failure, male rage and small-town despair. It's also an unforgettable portrait of a family, and the never-ending work of learning that is love.\" - \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnthony McCann, author of SHADOWLANDS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Rose Andersen has written a gorgeous elegy to her sister, Sarah. In prose that is often mesmerizing, she creates a portrait of love and loss, addiction and sobriety. Of grief and ghosts. At the heart of this haunting memoir is the mystery of Sarah's death that Andersen tries to make sense of. Reminiscent of Rick Moody’s poignant writing about the death of his sister, this beautiful book will break your heart\" - \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eMary Morris, author of ALL THE WAY TO THE TIGERS\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"The memoir of a sister's death in which the line between overdose and murder becomes blurred, \u003ci\u003eThe Heart and Other Monsters\u003c\/i\u003e is the story of two girls wounded by addiction and simultaneously troubled and sustained by a broken, complex family whose actions frequently fall short of their ideals. With the fierce honesty of Domenica Ruta's\u003ci\u003e With or Without You\u003c\/i\u003e, this is the most clearsighted depiction I know of what it's like to piece life together after a great, irreparable loss, and a deft navigation of the byways and channels leading up to that loss, through it, and beyond.\" - \u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eBrian Evenson, author of SONG FOR THE UNRAVELING OF THE WORLD\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eISBN:  9781635575149\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e ","brand":"Bloomsbury Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":40735999557838,"sku":"9781635575149","price":26.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0600\/7029\/7806\/products\/getimage_9876d30e-f219-48c5-afd3-310451ca4d74.jpg?v=1641277194","url":"https:\/\/pickwickbookshop.com\/products\/9781635575149","provider":"Pickwick Bookshop","version":"1.0","type":"link"}