Sirens

Josh Mohr drank immensely, consumed every drug he could, and did unspeakable things he now does his best to speak of. And then when he got clean he had a stroke. Sirens is his first memoir after five books of fiction set in the same Mission District demimonde he's worked his way out of: in it, he's unsparing about everything but artful too, and generous to everyone he writes about, even himself. It's hard to write about recovery without falling into cliches, but Mohr brings a sense of open-hearted adventure and romance to what has been—and remains—a life-or-death struggle. Death is never far away in this book, but life is everywhere too.